Manchester City are reportedly on the verge of sealing a deal to buy Mumbai City.
Manchester City are the illustrious centre piece in the group of football clubs covering the world who are part of the City Football Group (CFG). Currently the CFG comprises in addition to Manchester City – New York City, Melbourne City, Yokohoma F Marinos, Club Atletico Torque, Girona and Sichuan Jiuniu.
The CFG already spans Europe, North and South America, Australia and Japan in a network of clubs where playing models and expertise are shared. The stated ambition being a truly global enterprise characterised by beautiful football.
There have been long rumoured plans to extend the reach of the CFG into the Indian subcontinent, especially because it is considered a major growth market in football, given the huge interest in sport in India and the limited current reach of the Indian Super League.
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City have been carefully looking for the right club to invest into and at the right point in the market. It is this due diligence which has finally secured a Chinese club after some 4 years of planning this Summer, albeit a lower division club with room to grow.
If reports are to be believed, City are about to announce Mumbai City as the newest club in the CFG stable. This is an Indian Super League Club playing in the largest city in India – Mumbai.
Mumbai is a centre of business, arts and finance and has a huge density of millionaires. Providing a football club for this market would be the kind of interesting project you can imagine Sheikh Mansour to be interested in.
Mumbai City are currently jointly owned by a Bollywood Star and an accountant and play in an 8000 seater stadium, which is usually full. One stand has been converted into a premium hospitality suite and tends to be used by the owner.
There are strangely some connections already between Manchester and Mumbai City. Ex Manchester City striker Nicolas Anelka was both player and manager at Mumbai City and Peter Reid was also manager at both clubs.
The new season in the Indian Super League kicks off on 24 October and it is widely expected an announcement will be made before the opening games. In recent weeks the press has been full of denials about any potential purchase, but these seem too stringently denied.
Joining Manchester to such a huge new City club can only reap benefits going forward and we look forward to watching this story develop over the coming days.