A Liverpool source told BBC Sport the club was not for sale and there were no ongoing discussions with any group.

They said club owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) regularly receive "proposals of interest", and this approach had not reached them directly.

Instead the interest was dealt with by a financial services company acting as a "filter and sounding board".

Regarding the £2bn valuation, a Liverpool source said that "would not be something FSG or any individual owner will have set".

They added: "Any discussion of figures and valuations should be seen in the context that it was at a vetting process to weigh up credibility of the proposed investor and nothing more."

However, Liverpool's owners have said they would "under the right terms and conditions consider taking on a minority investor, if such a partnership was to further our commercial interests in specific market places, in line with the continued development and growth of the club".

A Daily Mail report on Thursday said Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al Nehayan approached the Premier League club over several months into late 2017 and early 2018, and that any buyout would also have involved another Chinese investor.

The report also said Midhat Kidwai, the managing director of Bin Zayed Group, Sheikh Khaled's conglomerate of companies, met Liverpool chairman Tom Werner in New York, United States.

The Anfield club source said that meeting "would have been largely coincidental" and "not specifically arranged", adding that John Henry and Mike Gordon are the two biggest shareholders in Liverpool and "their absence from any discussions is significant".

Liverpool were bought by their owners, then known as New England Sports Ventures, for £300m in 2010.

Malcolm Glazer's £790m purchase of Premier League rivals Manchester United in 2005 remains the most expensive football takeover deal.

United were in May valued at around £2.93bn by business services group KPMG - more than Spanish giants Real Madrid (£2.63bn) and Barcelona (£2.5bn), and German club Bayern Munich (£2.3bn).

Liverpool were valued at £1.42bn, Manchester City at £1.94bn, Arsenal £1.89bn, Chelsea £1.58bn and Tottenham £1.16bn.