Amit Bhatia's group, with Jeff Bezos in it, is buying about a third of Liverpool

Liverpool's owners have agreed to sell about a third of the club to a consortium that includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Fenway Sports Group said on Friday it had a definitive agreement for a strategic minority investment by 1892 Holdings, named for the year the club was founded.

The group is led by Amit Bhatia, the British-Indian businessman who is married to a daughter of Lakshmi Mittal. Bhatia is set to become vice-chairman and join an expanded board, pending regulatory approval. He spent 18 years as a director and co-owner of Queens Park Rangers before selling that stake last month. Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is also in the group, through EE Capital, the family office he runs with his wife Elaine. Bezos is investing through K5 Sports. He will not take a board seat. Bryan Baum of K5 and Elaine Saverin will.

BBC Sport was told the deal values Liverpool between 5 and 6 billion pounds, that it does not create a new transfer budget, and that FSG was not selling out of need. FSG president Mike Gordon said Bhatia and the consortium shared the club's long-term view. Bhatia called it a privilege to be welcomed as a partner. FSG, which bought Liverpool for about 300 million pounds in 2010, keeps majority ownership and operational control. The agreement includes an option for the consortium to invest more later.

The India angle is not a side note. BBC Sport said FSG liked the consortium's reach in India and across Asia. Bhatia on the board, with the Mittal family behind him, is a different kind of Premier League money from a Gulf fund or a US private-equity house. Bezos is the headline in London and New York. In India, Bhatia is the name that will be read twice.

Fans are already asking what 30 percent buys. Spirit of Shankly, the supporters' union, said it wanted to know what the buyers get in return and whether this is a trophy purchase. It has written to the Independent Football Regulator. A season-ticket holder told the BBC he was uneasy about Amazon's record with workers and unions. Those are not abstract complaints at a club that still sells itself on a working-class story.

The deal needs regulatory sign-off. Bhatia's vice-chair role and the new board seats are the first visible changes. The option to increase the stake is the one that matters in a year: some reports say 1892 Holdings could move toward majority ownership if FSG ever wants to sell. Until then, the transfer window does not get a Bezos slush fund, and the test is commercial, not sporting. Watch the next kit, tour and India-facing deal, not the next centre-back.