There's a gonzo timeline to be had where Qaddafi buys the team, but in the embarrassment that follows the collapse of the regime his holding is revoked before there's a clear buyer to pick up the pieces. The UK government finds itself owning a football team, and obviously tries to flog it off- and amidst all the usual suspects, you have a few die hard fans try to start a crowd-funded cooperative to buy back their team, as was suggested during this year's Super League fiasco.
For maximum banter, you'd deliberately have this mirror the actual Arab revolutions- tankies explaining that Gadaffi was a very good owner, and these western backed 'fans' were actually all racist hooligans, France and Britain backing rival oligarchs who want to buy the club, boats of players crossing the Ship Canal to start new lives in Liverpool (that's enough- ed.)