One of the great curiosities regarding the state of Premier League ownership will come into focus when Liverpool visit Manchester City on Sunday.

Despite a rivalry that has defined the past decade and has led to both sides’ team coaches being attacked, a £1m legal settlement being paid by Liverpool after City claimed their scouting database had been hacked, and accusations from City officials that Jürgen Klopp had made borderline xenophobic comments about state-backed owners, which the German rejected, the two clubs have more in common than some of their feuding fans may wish to acknowledge.

In 2023 City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour, sanctioned a $750m investment in the company that is the third-biggest shareholder in Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group.

RedBird Capital Partners has since 2021 owned 11% of FSG, in which Liverpool’s principal owner, John Henry, is the biggest shareholder with 40%. Mansour’s International Media Investments (IMI) ploughed $750m into RedBird two years later as part of a fundraising drive that delivered $2.5bn to be spent on sport and media assets, with the investment deemed so significant that the fund was renamed RedBird IMI.

The fund was created to specialise in sport and media mergers, and RedBird IMI...