City linked with buying team in Chinese Super League ( Update page 6)

Maybe we could sell them some of the first tea era for inflated prices
 
If we are getting a club in China and South Korea. Where does that leave other supposedly key strategic locations eg Africa, South America India Middle East and feeder club in Europe ? Would we not have done these locations already given that the Chinese Super league has only just gone into over drive and the Korea does not really seem to do good great footballers ?
 
WRicko said:
If we are getting a club in China and South Korea. Where does that leave other supposedly key strategic locations eg Africa, South America India Middle East and feeder club in Europe ? Would we not have done these locations already given that the Chinese Super league has only just gone into over drive and the Korea does not really seem to do good great footballers ?
Click to expand...

I think it's very unlikely we'll see City branded clubs in South America and Europe. If you read Sorriano's book he says they looked at doing the exact same expansion strategy with Barca. They decided South America and Europe were too developed, too established as football markets. He thought there would be too much resistance to clubs being rebranded, and the football fanbase already had long standing loyalties to local clubs.

I definitely think we'll see a club open in China though.

It was interesting in the City press release about the Dortmund game that they referred to Shenzen as a "booming technology hub" almost like they were trying to big that city up. They didn't call Beijing a "thriving metropolis" for example, just "Beijing".

Saying that, I can't see us opening in any city where Etihad doesn't fly from. Their current China hub airports are Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and Hong Kong.
 
WRicko said:
If we are getting a club in China and South Korea. Where does that leave other supposedly key strategic locations eg Africa, South America India Middle East and feeder club in Europe ? Would we not have done these locations already given that the Chinese Super league has only just gone into over drive and the Korea does not really seem to do good great footballers ?
Click to expand...

There are multiple reasons why that shouldn't be the case. For a start, CFG is still quite a small operation and Soriano is actively involved in New York and Melbourne as well as Manchester. It would be logistically infeasible for CFG to just splurge on acquiring a dozen clubs all in one go and then attempt to run them properly - either they'd spread themselves so thin that some of the clubs just fell apart from lack of attention or they'd have to hire a load of people from outside the company, thus losing control of the "philosophy" of the clubs, which is why Soriano has stayed so committed to them all so far. Also, they're still (slowly) building up the infrastructure they need to run things like the academy operations, marketing and training grounds. I know for a fact that MCFC's press officer (who I've met and can honestly say is one of the most verminous individuals I've ever come into contact with) is also handling all of NYCFC's PR still, and actively flies between the two cities frequently to handle press events.

And that's saying nothing of the actual cost involved. Melbourne City may have only cost £10m but that is a low water mark. Acquiring a whole host of clubs at once would rip a big chunk out of Mansour's wallet, and that's saying nothing of the costs involved in building new training grounds in every city, expanding staff and adding women's teams, and also remembering that most of CFG is run at a loss every year.

As for the other locations, you have to also consider the location. City were actively approached by an ISL (India) team offering them a 25% share and the rights to the team name in exchange for their assistance in running the club. Maybe it just wasn't the right offer, but I've seen articles before saying that CFG don't want to get involved anywhere were the integrity of the league and the sport is questionable, and while China has had problems at the past, India has a lot more now. The Middle East I don't think CFG will ever go near - Mansour already has Al Jazira FC in the UAE which he owns entirely separately from CFG and I think CFG are basically leaving that region to him. Africa will come eventually but I think it's low on the priority list for various reasons, and South America and Europe I agree with Shaelumstash's post above about.

I know there have been rumours in the past of investing into a Portuguese team for their ability to sign Brazilians but it seems that's long since gone stale. Besides, we now have Girona in Spain, which CFG are trying to drag (largely unsuccessfully so far) up to La Liga, and most of the reliable stories I've seen recently suggest that CFG are largely put off anyway by UEFA's rule against owning two teams in the same competition. I doubt we'll see any other CFG-owned teams in Europe.

You've got to remember that CFG's interest in other clubs is only secondarily about getting access to the player market. It's far more about wanting to advertise CFG. Part of that comes from winning things, although they really have MCFC for that as they will gain 100x more fans from us winning a single League Cup than NYCFC or Melbourne City or Shanghai or whoever would get from winning their league or even their continental cup. It seems that the real prize for CFG, however, is that they want to set themselves up as kingmakers for the sport globally. I don't think it's any coincidence that so far, after us, they've only bought into clubs in countries without a strong football passion. They aren't just happy with owning a club and making it dominant, they want people to know that they helped make football dominant in that country.

When, in 50 years' time, Americans talk about football (our kind) being their national sport, they want the addendum "and it was CFG's investment that made the difference". They want to be the ones who make the CSL into a global force. They want to be the ones to bring football to Australian TV. It's also behind their investment in women's football. They want people to know that they went all-in for women's football in the UK by providing MCWFC with their own custom-built stadium, they want to be known as the company which values the women equally to the men. It's written all over their modus operandi everywhere they operate. They simply can't do that in South America or Europe right now, because they have nothing to build up there.
 
I watch NY and Melbourne but am Manchester City first and foremost. I only want us playing decent football, again.
Everything else is diversionary bollocks.
 
Falastur said:
There are multiple reasons why that shouldn't be the case. For a start, CFG is still quite a small operation and Soriano is actively involved in New York and Melbourne as well as Manchester. It would be logistically infeasible for CFG to just splurge on acquiring a dozen clubs all in one go and then attempt to run them properly - either they'd spread themselves so thin that some of the clubs just fell apart from lack of attention or they'd have to hire a load of people from outside the company, thus losing control of the "philosophy" of the clubs, which is why Soriano has stayed so committed to them all so far. Also, they're still (slowly) building up the infrastructure they need to run things like the academy operations, marketing and training grounds. I know for a fact that MCFC's press officer (who I've met and can honestly say is one of the most verminous individuals I've ever come into contact with) is also handling all of NYCFC's PR still, and actively flies between the two cities frequently to handle press events.

And that's saying nothing of the actual cost involved. Melbourne City may have only cost £10m but that is a low water mark. Acquiring a whole host of clubs at once would rip a big chunk out of Mansour's wallet, and that's saying nothing of the costs involved in building new training grounds in every city, expanding staff and adding women's teams, and also remembering that most of CFG is run at a loss every year.

As for the other locations, you have to also consider the location. City were actively approached by an ISL (India) team offering them a 25% share and the rights to the team name in exchange for their assistance in running the club. Maybe it just wasn't the right offer, but I've seen articles before saying that CFG don't want to get involved anywhere were the integrity of the league and the sport is questionable, and while China has had problems at the past, India has a lot more now. The Middle East I don't think CFG will ever go near - Mansour already has Al Jazira FC in the UAE which he owns entirely separately from CFG and I think CFG are basically leaving that region to him. Africa will come eventually but I think it's low on the priority list for various reasons, and South America and Europe I agree with Shaelumstash's post above about.

I know there have been rumours in the past of investing into a Portuguese team for their ability to sign Brazilians but it seems that's long since gone stale. Besides, we now have Girona in Spain, which CFG are trying to drag (largely unsuccessfully so far) up to La Liga, and most of the reliable stories I've seen recently suggest that CFG are largely put off anyway by UEFA's rule against owning two teams in the same competition. I doubt we'll see any other CFG-owned teams in Europe.

You've got to remember that CFG's interest in other clubs is only secondarily about getting access to the player market. It's far more about wanting to advertise CFG. Part of that comes from winning things, although they really have MCFC for that as they will gain 100x more fans from us winning a single League Cup than NYCFC or Melbourne City or Shanghai or whoever would get from winning their league or even their continental cup. It seems that the real prize for CFG, however, is that they want to set themselves up as kingmakers for the sport globally. I don't think it's any coincidence that so far, after us, they've only bought into clubs in countries without a strong football passion. They aren't just happy with owning a club and making it dominant, they want people to know that they helped make football dominant in that country.

When, in 50 years' time, Americans talk about football (our kind) being their national sport, they want the addendum "and it was CFG's investment that made the difference". They want to be the ones who make the CSL into a global force. They want to be the ones to bring football to Australian TV. It's also behind their investment in women's football. They want people to know that they went all-in for women's football in the UK by providing MCWFC with their own custom-built stadium, they want to be known as the company which values the women equally to the men. It's written all over their modus operandi everywhere they operate. They simply can't do that in South America or Europe right now, because they have nothing to build up there.
Click to expand...

Why could they not build on something in Europe or South America either in the womens league or generally especially if they picked a lesser league with a focus on youth development for other CFG clubs I guess it would not really have the glory but then I do not think a club in Australia Korea or Japan has the glory

Other owners have mulitiple clubs in Europe

Whats the womens game like in China ? I know the national team is decent but I cannot imagine it being very big over there ? What about in Australia ? Also there is no womens team in Japan is there ?

I do not really get why having a club in the UAE excludes another club in the Middle East

I do not think its that hard for an owner like ours to grow the group very quickly they are doing it so they could easily add more clubs quickly I would have thought

The other thing is if they struggle to find clubs say in the middle East Africa South America Europe India I would expect them to set up football academies

What are the reasons for Africa being a low priority ?
 
WRicko said:
Why could they not build on something in Europe or South America either in the womens league or generally especially if they picked a lesser league with a focus on youth development for other CFG clubs I guess it would not really have the glory but then I do not think a club in Australia Korea or Japan has the glory

Other owners have mulitiple clubs in Europe

Whats the womens game like in China ? I know the national team is decent but I cannot imagine it being very big over there ? What about in Australia ? Also there is no womens team in Japan is there ?

I do not really get why having a club in the UAE excludes another club in the Middle East

I do not think its that hard for an owner like ours to grow the group very quickly they are doing it so they could easily add more clubs quickly I would have thought

The other thing is if they struggle to find clubs say in the middle East Africa South America Europe India I would expect them to set up football academies

What are the reasons for Africa being a low priority ?
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that I am not an ITK, I just read a lot and interpret a lot. If you probe for too many answers. I will eventually start getting things wrong. However, my take would be this:

Why could they not build a women's league-only project in Europe? They could, although UEFA's rules against multiple ownership apply to the women's game as well as to the men's. If we got MCWFC and a second project to the Women's CL in the same season, UEFA would force us to choose one side which would have to withdraw and offer its place to someone else. What's more, CFG seem very focused on having men and women working together beside each other. I don't think they're interested in running a women's team on its own.

As for running a lower-league team in general, again they could but I don't think they're interested in owning a team that isn't challenging for national honours. Remember that their focus here is self-promotion. How many people on this forum can remember which team won League One or League Two last year? I know I can't. CFG would get basically nothing out of running a lower-league outfit so as far as they are concerned, what is the point?

I'm aware that there are other groups with multiple teams under the same ownership in Europe, by the way, but the rule is specifically that two teams cannot compete in the same tournament, not that multiple ownership isn't allowed at all. If you look at those groups, you won't find any of them own more than one team which plays in the CL. Incidentally, UEFA does allow multiple teams to play under the same ownership if given special exemption, but honestly can anyone really see UEFA agreeing that for us of all people?

I know nothing about the women's game in China except that in the 1990s China recorded a runner-up and a 4th place finish in the Women's World Cup. However, women's football is woefully underfunded everywhere in the world, so there will always be an excuse for CFG to start a women's team if one doesn't exist where it already operates a club. I know for sure that they want a team in New York. As for Japan, the thing about that is CFG aren't actually running the Marinos. They have fed them their new manager but the Marinos are Nissan's company team and while there are stories of CFG buying into the club in a bigger way it hasn't happened yet.

As for the Middle East I don't know for sure, but I can say that I've heard absolutely no stories about it even being considered, and over the last few years I've read a lot of stories about this stuff. What I have heard, though, is that we are already far more popular in the Middle East than most anywhere else, so if CFG want recognition they're not going to get much more of it by starting another club there. If it happens, it happens as far as I'm concerned, but it would be out of the blue to me.

As I suggested before, I'm sure they could expand CFG quickly if they want to, but they clearly don't. For one thing, they would have to rush through the deals, bearing in mind that it usually takes several months of fairly intensive negotiations to arrange a multi-million pound business buyout crossing national borders, and part of that is ensuring that they pay the right price and get the right terms in their takeover. By forcing through deals in order to expand CFG quickly they'd be paying a premium (where have we heard that before?) and then they'd suddenly struggle to handle the logistics of all the clubs they suddenly owned. CFG love the slow-build, the five-year plan. They would never do something as rash as going on a buying spree.

As for the academies, it's a weird one. I always thought that they would be all for planting academies all over the place - they're comparatively cheap to run (or they can be), they don't involve having to negotiate the demands of operating in a league, they are less heavily controlled and they are the ultimate source of top youth potential. They also seem like they would require much less micromanagement from CFG-level to operate, meaning they are easier to own large numbers of. CFG just haven't gone for it though. Sure, they've set up "City Soccer Schools" in a load of places but let's be honest - they are the equivalent of the course you book your kid onto to keep them busy over summer. They aren't the type of thing which a PL club uses to source top talent. I can only imagine that the real reason behind it is, again, that players are secondary to CFG and far more important is the City name. It's highly unlikely that large numbers of people would take up following City over an academy which was running in their city, so CFG just aren't fussed. That said, I'm really not convinced that any of this is going to help out CFG in the way they think it will anyway - supporters of the other CFG clubs seem at best apathetic to City and introducing local club loyalties only makes it less likely that a fan of another team in the league starts following MCFC, but whatever.

Finally, on Africa, again I'm speculating but it seems to me that it's just not a key market. Football is already big there - even in South Africa, which is pretty much the only place on the continent where football is not the biggest sport - and the league is somewhat dubious in some regards. I suspect CFG don't think they can be as useful to football in South Africa right now as they can be in Asia.
 
I guess there is an economic and political argument for not being in Africa given the economies of most of them and the problems with security democracy etc

Perhaps this underlines why despite the lack of wow with the league the reason we are in Australia Japan and will be in Korea They are powerful economies with with big corporations have a club is a great way to connect with sponsors for NYCFC and MCFC

I still feel ins some respect they have picked the wrong leagues and should do more youth development but the more clubs within reason the better and these places could come down the line I guess Perhaps they need us to be successful with youth to get people to attend the academies and perhaps they ae revenue driven first over youth development
 
After New York, Melbourne and Yokohama, Manchester City are now negotiating the purchase of a club in the Chinese Super League. [SPORT]
City have already been in touch with a club in Beijing and another in Shanghai to try to close an acquisition for a new franchise. [SPORT]
 
Not really surprised with today's rumours what with the Chinese president making an appearance at our Academy.

Can't see the footballing logic behind starting teams in these countries other than in a business sense in that they are strong economically so we may gain more pull with sponsors from the region.

Just please city... Please don't have an official noodle supplier, and we don't need Tractors for now.
 
Do you prefer us to get our noodles from unofficial sources and are you not keen on tractors or are you simply an ex-tractor fan?
 
Why Always Ste said:
Not really surprised with today's rumours what with the Chinese president making an appearance at our Academy.

Can't see the footballing logic behind starting teams in these countries other than in a business sense in that they are strong economically so we may gain more pull with sponsors from the region.

Just please city... Please don't have an official noodle supplier, and we don't need Tractors for now.
Click to expand...

If China wants all the big players in the world and put in the required money, players will go there. And spectators will turn to China. You think this is never going to happen? Well everybody said we would never be a top club with top players when the sheik took over 8 years ago...
 
Why Always Ste said:
Not really surprised with today's rumours what with the Chinese president making an appearance at our Academy.

Can't see the footballing logic behind starting teams in these countries other than in a business sense in that they are strong economically so we may gain more pull with sponsors from the region.

Just please city... Please don't have an official noodle supplier, and we don't need Tractors for now.
Click to expand...

according to Garry Cook (who also said this originated from the UEA from the start) the idea is about selling City to far flung populations, but to then also give them a local live match to go to as well as watching City on the telly. Thus making their link to the entire city group deeper and more permanent.

I will try and find the interview where he said this
 
pirate said:
according to Garry Cook (who also said this originated from the UEA from the start) the idea is about selling City to far flung populations, but to then also give them a local live match to go to as well as watching City on the telly. Thus making their link to the entire city group deeper and more permanent.

I will try and find the interview where he said this
Click to expand...
Weird, I though the idea was Soriano's when he was at Barca from his interview a couple of weeks ago.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top