[5], Four of City Football Group's ten clubs sport women's teams, with Montevideo City Torque expected to launch a women's team in 2021 and New York City FC having previously held discussions about an affiliation with Sky Blue FC in 2014. [5], Early growth in the group focused on teams sharing a common identity and an associated brand, which aligned with the traditional identity of Manchester City and was viewed as a key way of helping the Manchester club build up its foreign support. One of the core philosophies of City Football Group since its inception has been the mutual supporting of clubs through combined scouting and player sharing. [3], Founded in 2013, City Football Group is the realisation of a business vision by former Barcelona Economy Vice President Ferran Soriano. [59] The club was one of the founding members of the Football League Second Division in 1892[59] and first gained promotion to the top division of English football in 1899, in the process becoming the first team in history to be promoted via automatic promotion. Developments within Manchester City's academy would ultimately lead to a shift in strategy and focus of the group. Marinos. [62] Their first trophy came in the 1904 FA Cup Final;[59] in total, at the point of their acquisition by City Football Group, they had won two top flight league titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and three FA Community Shields. [116], Though they had operated a women's side since 2017,[117] Girona Femen A only came into being in 2020, when Girona purchased the women's section of local club Sant Pere Pescador, renaming them to match the club's identity. is a professional football club based in Lommel, competing in the Belgian First Division B (second tier). [68] Further investment came in the field of fan engagement, where City committed themselves to a policy of winning the global popularity contest with a mass display of social media. [102] The club adopted the moniker Torque as one of its founders was an electromechanic, and collectively the founders liked the concept of torque as a relationship between power and movement. [104] Though they came close to winning the Torneo Intermedio[105] - which would have qualified them for the Copa Sudamericana - they would at the end of the season fall foul of the Primera Divisin relegation rules, which saw the bottom three teams relegated based on a two-year rolling average of points per game. On 6 December 2014 they announced the creation of their NPL team, which began competition in the 2015 season.[92]. In addition to having their own esports players, CFG have also collaborated with existing teams. 5 Although the EDS have operated as Manchester City's reserve team for considerably longer than CFG have owned the club, they only began competing in a senior competition in 201718 when they were given a place in the EFL Trophy. NYCFC's circular badge style would also be mimicked by Manchester City, Melbourne City and Torque. [96] Though the club changed its name to Yokohama Marinos when they turned professional in 1993,[96] throughout their history they have remainder under Nissan's majority ownership. Following the success of their investment in Manchester City's women's team, CFG announced their continued support of women's football with the creation of a women's department in Melbourne in 2015 which was accepted as an expansion team in the W-League.[45]. City Football Group was announced as majority stakeholder of Mumbai City on Thursday 28 November 2019 after acquiring 65% of the club. Part one empire building", "Eight Bara Board Members Resign Amid Laporta Chaos", "MELBOURNE HEART RENAMED MELBOURNE CITY FC", "Melbourne City kit change will mirror Manchester City's blue", "Manchester City Women's Football Club re-launched", "Manchester City reveals plan to invest in Yokohama F. Marinos", "Con una impronta empresarial, el City Group busca darle un nuevo giro a Torque", "CFG acquires majority stake in Indian Super League's Mumbai City FC", "Kogel is door de kerk: Lommel gaat in zee met Manchester City", "Troyes AC: Manchester City owners City Football Group acquire Ligue 2 club", "Special report: City Football Group. On the pitch, the following seasons saw the team replaced under the management of Mark Hughes[63] and then a second time under Roberto Mancini as the lobbying of established UEFA Champions League clubs in the Premier League[64] forced the Manchester team to act quickly in order to achieve Champions League status before the newly implemented Financial Fair Play Regulations made it unviable for teams to spend outside of their earnings in an attempt to move up the table. [23] In response, the club's fans held protests both in Breda and also Manchester and Lommel. [43] In both Manchester and Melbourne, CFG (re)launched new women's sides in 2014 and 2015,[44][45] promising to invest in women's football in unprecedent ways. [21] In the same year they would also expand their business interests by taking sole control of US-based five-a-side football business Goals Soccer Centers, a business they had previously invested in, following the near-collapse of the company's owners due to an internal scandal. [110] The team was formed quickly enough to contest in the 2021 season of the Campeonato Femenino B, the second tier of women's football in Uruguay. [126] Club Bolivar is the most successful Bolivian club having won 29 domestic titles since it was founded in La Paz on 12 April 1925. By early 2021, CFG would have a total of 16 professional esports players across their various clubs. [85] Although the Heart won the first Melbourne derby their early performances in the league were poor, qualifying for the playoffs only once in the first four seasons and finishing in last place in the 201314 season. [31] With the purchase of Mumbai City and the renaming of Club Atletico Torque to Montevideo City Torque, five teams in the group feature the word City in their name, and similarly all five wear sky blue kits. [78] To date they are the only team built from scratch by City Football Group. In 2019, the affiliation with Peralada was terminated as they were relegated to the Tercera Divisin. [127] The two club were already linked after Vannes' President Maxime Ray had joined CFG to become a minority shareholder in Troyes AC as part of the 2020 purchase, though he agreed to have no operational role at Troyes as part of the takeover. Later the following year CFG would grow again with the purchase of a 20% in Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos, the traditional company team of group sponsor Nissan.[13]. CFG expanded at the start of 2014 when it partnered with Rugby league side Melbourne Storm to acquire a controlling stake in A-League franchise Melbourne Heart for 12 million Australian dollars. In both cities the women's teams would ultimately be given bespoke facilities which, in contrast to the standard for football clubs, shared training locations with their affiliated men's teams. In the process of managing the creation of a second football team City Football Group was created,[8] designed to be the holding company to which both Manchester City and NYCFC belonged. In response the club dismissed these claims as untrue, where sources close to the club said the report was a continuation of an orchestrated campaign and part of an endless attempt to damage us. 4 Although MCWFC have been affiliated to Manchester City since their creation in the 1980s, they only came under CFG control when the two clubs merged in 2014. This prompted Soriano and CFG's executive management to change their ambitions to put more emphasis on purchasing smaller clubs in strong existing football markets, with the intention of turning them into specialists centres for acquiring and training future stars from their local areas. [52] In 2021, Manchester City became the first CFG club to expand beyond FIFA when they signed Aiden "Threats" Mong to represent them in Fortnite tournaments. they existed solely as an external affiliate of the club until August 2012, with few shared resources and with CFG enjoying no control over the club's management. [9] The club would subsequently be rebranded to Melbourne City FC and their badge changed as part of CFG's early attempts to synergise their investments with Manchester City as a brand,[10] and the club's colours would slowly be changed to sky blue with their red-and-white stripes retained as away colours. Soriano first conceived of the ideal of a global football entity while at the Catalan club, beginning with the creation of Barca-branded overseas academies. [124], In July 2022, CFG acquired a 80% majority stake of Italian Serie B club Palermo.[125]. [36], In addition to internal player movements, CFG has also sought to foster movements of coaching staff within their network also; among the most notable relocations are French manager Eric Mombaerts, who has worked with Yokohama F. Marinos, Melbourne City and Troyes,[37] Manchester City Women manager Nick Cushing transferring to New York[38] and English coach Liam Manning transferring from the NYCFC academy to take over management of Lommel's first team. They lifted the MLS Cup for the first time in 2021. [7] Soriano revived his ambitions of creating a global football business entity, beginning by resuming dialogues with Garber. [118], Although Girona FC operated a senior women's team for a number of years, financial constraints had forced them to cease operations at the senior level in 2013[117] and by 2017 the Catalan club operated just 3 junior teams with a total of 41 youth players in their system. [87] In 2015 they opened a new City Football Academy facility at La Trobe University based on the designs and principles of the Manchester training ground of the same name,[88] and began construction of a larger base in the south of the city in 2021. The group is owned by three organisations; of which 78% is majority owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group, 10% by the American firm Silver Lake and 12% by Chinese firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital. Four years after the purchase of Manchester City, an agreement was signed in which the affiliated women's team would come under full control of Manchester City and would effectively become a department of the same organisation. [129] On 3 February 2020, CFG purchased the remaining 50% to take full ownership of the joint venture[130] operating under the Americanised name Goals Soccer Centers following the near-collapse of their partner as a result of historic fraud allegations. In addition to this, the clubs also share other information, such as medical, performance monitoring and player management. [111], On 23 August 2017, it was announced that the City Football Group had acquired 44.3% of La Liga side Girona. [102] Starting from the third tier - at that time the lowest level of the Uruguayan football league system - the club made steady progress, earning promotion to the Segunda Divisin in 2011[103] achieving finishes in the top half of the Segunda Divisin table by 2015. [115] At the time of the purchase of Girona by CFG, the club operated in the Segona Catalana division, the sixth level of football in Spain. The owner of the club Marcelo Claure is also part of the ownership group of Inter Miami CF alongside David Beckham as well as being COO of SoftBank Group with Masayoshi Son (CEO of Softbank) as well as Jorge Mas and Jose Mas from MasTec respectively. [18] 2020 similarly would see two club purchases in European football, first of Lommel of Belgium[19] and then of Troyes of France,[20] with both moves notably seeing the purchased clubs rescued from financial difficulties[5] and linked to the economic damages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. When the new Manchester City training ground was constructed it was specifically designed to include the women's team as equal partners, and the encouragement of the women's team to have access to the same sports science and analysts as the men's teams was considered pioneering at the time. [66][67] This came in conjunction with the announcement in 2014 that they had received planning permission to increase their stadium capacity to over 62,000, making it the second largest club stadium in England. Since its inception the W-League had seen low levels of financial support from clubs into their female sides, with teams rarely spending even half of their budget cap. [22], In March 2022, Dutch second-tier side NAC Breda announced that following an investigation into the best bidders to sell the club's shares, the shareholders of the club had agreed to a sale to CFG. [60] They are ranked as one of the top ten clubs in England for most seasons spent in the English top flight,[61] and top five for most major honours won. [117], On 20 February 2019, it was announced that the City Football Group as well as UBTECH and China Sports Capital had acquired Sichuan Jiuniu F.C.[119]. [112][113] In August 2018, Girona had two loanees, both 21 years old, from Manchester City.[114]. [15] Several months later Torque would be followed in by Spanish second division club Girona,[16] a club with ownership links to incumbent Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. ", "NEWSSource: Sky Blue, NYCFC to hold preliminary meeting", "Melbourne City FC set to field W-League team in 2015", "Melbourne City FC launch Elite Women's Training Facility at CFA Melbourne", "Melbourne City crowned W-League champions after beating Sydney FC 1-0 in grand final", "Manchester City sign first e-sports player", "Inside Man City's esports team with professional FIFA stars Ryan Pessoa and 'Shellzz', "CITY SIGN FORTNITE STAR AIDAN 'THREATS' MONG", "MANCHESTER CITY'S HISTORIC CHINA ESPORTS LAUNCH", "CITY AND NEXON UNVEIL CLUB'S LATEST ESPORTS TEAM", "CITY AND FAZE CLAN LAUNCH COLLABORATION", "CFG TO COLLABORATE WITH BLUE UNITED EFC IN JAPAN", "Seasons Spent in the Top Flight of English Football by Clubs from 1888-89 to 2021-22", "English Football's Most Successful Clubs", "Mark Hughes defends Manchester City's summer spending spree", "Manchester United at forefront of financial fair play bid Whelan", "Manchester City splash the cash on Platt Lane academy", "Manchester City's 100m plan to be the Barcelona of the Premier League", "Manchester City unveil 80-acre Etihad Academy plan", "Manchester City's Etihad Stadium expansion approved", "Manchester City: The most social media-savvy club in the world", "Interview: The World's Richest Soccer Club Is Like A Free Content 'Startup', "Manchester City sets the goal of being the world's best-supported soccer club", "Pep Guardiola | Manchester City Manager profile", "Leaked emails reveal Manchester City received payments from Abu Dhabi", "Manchester City's Cozy Ties to Abu Dhabi: Sponsorship Money Paid for by the State", "City announce formal partnership with MCFC Ladies", "Manchester City Women: the making of a superclub", "Continental Cup: Manchester City beat Arsenal to win first trophy", "Major League Soccer announces New York expansion team: New York City Football Club", "New York City FC name Marcin Baszczynski director of football operations", "New York City FC Unveils Etihad City Football Academy in New York", "MLS Next Pro Adds Another Element to U.S. Soccer's Ever-Evolving Lower Club Tier", "New York City Football Club Sign Three Players to Homegrown Contracts", "Melbourne awarded licence for second A-League team", "The Significance of the Melbourne Derby", "Melbourne Heart Officially Becomes Melbourne City, But Will Not Wear Sky Blue", "Melbourne City Unveils Sky Blue Kit For 2017/18 Season", "Melbourne City FC to create new Etihad City Football Academy Australia in South East Melbourne", "Melbourne City create history with FFA Cup final win", "Melbourne City beats Sydney FC 3-1 in grand final to claim maiden A-League championship", "Fixture News: National Premier Leagues 1", "Victoria restructures its NPL competition", "W-League grand final: Melbourne City beat Sydney FC", "Melbourne City roll on as records tumble", "Postecoglou's legacy in Japan is unmatched and not finished yet", "ndale: en Mxico naci la idea de crear a Torque", "Uruguay 2017 - Segunda Divisin Profesional", "Uruguay 2018 - Torneo Intermedio 2018 - Final", "Uruguay 2019 - Segunda Divisin Profesional", "The City Group Way: How Montevideo City Torque is Changing Uruguayan Football", "Ftbol femenino: MC Torque presenta su plantel y apunta ms all de la pelota", "Histrico de Temporadas - Campeonato Femenino B - 2021", "Revealed: How Manchester City courted Guardiola's brother to get Pep", "The incredible back story of Florian Lejeune's Man City transfer as he joins Newcastle", "Girona 14 Real Madrid Bale inspires Real to victory", "El Girona compra el Riudellots i tindr un filial a Segona Catalana", "El Girona aposta fort pel futbol femen", "El Girona FC tindr un equip a Primera Divisi Nacional femenina", "CFG acquires majority stake in Indian Super League's Mumbai City. [89] In 2016 the club won their first major honour by beating Sydney FC in the final of the Australia Cup[90] (then known as the FFA Cup), while they claimed their first league trophies by winning both the A-League Premier's Plate and the A-League Champions Trophy in 2021. [98][99][100], On 20 May 2014, it was announced that City Football Group had invested in a minority share of Yokohama F. Marinos, creating a partnership with both the football club and car manufacturer Nissan. Based around the tactics of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola - long coveted for the Manchester job by Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain after their experience working with him in Barcelona[40][41] - all of City Football Group's clubs are given access to extensive databases of Manchester City's tactics and coaching methods, enabling them all to follow the group directive to use the same style of football, a style occasionally referred to as the City Way. Nor is it eligible to play in any cup competition in which Girona themselves already compete. 6 In the 201920 season, ISL teams were invited to enter reserve teams into the I-League 2nd Division, a second-tier competition. As with many clubs in Japan, Yokohama F. Marinos were founded as a factory team of car manufacturing giant Nissan, and originally played under the name Nissan Motors F.C. [91], As part of the expansion of the National Premier Leagues Victoria 1 (now known as NPL Victoria 2), Melbourne City had an application accepted to field a team based around their now-defunct Youth side in the competition along with five additional new entrants. To this end, they launched a development team, called New York City FC II (frequently referred to as NYCFC II or NYCFC2).[83]. Under City Football Group, Manchester City Football Club have currently lifted the 201011 FA Cup, 201112 Premier League, 2012 FA Community Shield, 201314 Football League Cup, 201314 Premier League, 201516 Football League Cup, 201718 EFL Cup, 201718 Premier League, 2018 FA Community Shield, 201819 EFL Cup, 201819 Premier League, 201819 FA Cup, 2019 FA Community Shield, 201920 EFL Cup, 202021 EFL Cup, 202021 Premier League and 202122 Premier League. CFG clubs therefore provide invaluable services to each other by using their own local scouting networks to share information on players between clubs. Founded in 2013, New York City FC joined the American Major League Soccer as the 20th expansion team; their first season of actual competition was in 2015, alongside Orlando City SC. On 5 April 2017, CFG announced that it had acquired Club Atletico Torque, a club in Montevideo currently playing in the Uruguayan Primera Divisin. [117] Barely two months before CFG bought into the ownership of Girona FC, the club announced an expansion of its female set-up, including the restoration of the senior women's team, to start competing in the fifth tier of women's football in Spain. Similar is true of Asian clubs Yokohama F. Marinos and Sichuan Jiuniu. City Football Group's purchase of Melbourne Heart was announced on 23 January 2014, in a deal worked out with a consortium of businessmen related to local rugby league club Melbourne Storm. The following record lists the games played between CFG teams while both have been under common ownership: It was announced on 12 January 2021 that Club Bolivar had become the first "partner" club for the group. [57], Manchester City trace their origins back to 1880,[58] taking their present name in the year 1894. [11], In the weeks following their purchase of Melbourne City, CFG indicated their intentions of investing in women's football by rebranding Manchester City's female affiliate as Manchester City Women's Football Club[12] and successfully lobbied for the team to be added to the top tier of the FA Women's Super League, promising to invest in women's football on a scale never before seen in England. The season was cut short in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in subsequent seasons reserve teams were not eligible to participate. In 1999 the club merged with local rivals Yokohama Flugels after the Flugels went into insolvancy - the combination of the two teams resulted in the current name Yokohama F. In 2019, when NPL Victoria 2 was split in half to create a new, lower, third tier NPL division,[93] Melbourne City were one of the teams relegated to the lower level. [95] In total, Melbourne City have won the Premiership twice (in 201516 and 201920) and the championship four times (in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020). City Football Group was announced as majority stakeholder of Lommel SK on Monday 11 May 2020 acquiring the majority (unspecified) of the shares of the club. In 2019 Manchester City announced a partnership with FaZe Clan which would see the two run various esports competitions and merchandising lines, as well as allowing City's and FaZe's FIFA players to share facilities and train together. [19] Lommel S.K. While virtually all large European clubs operate an international scouting network,[34] financial demands make it impossible to access local knowledge in foreign countries to the same extent as a domestic club could. [21] Possessing such a network then allows the local clubs to sign players early in their development, safe in the knowledge that the range of clubs CFG owns means that they can be placed at any of a number of sides as their development continues and the need for other challenges arises. It was announced on 17 February 2021 that French fourth tier side Vannes had become the latest partner club for the group. Maxime Ray (Vannes OC) n'aura " pas de rle oprationnel " Troyes", "Manchester City seals US deal with Goals Soccer Centres", "Manchester City-owner scores with Goals US transfer deal", Major League Soccer principal owners by team, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=City_Football_Group&oldid=1098662430, Articles with dead external links from May 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with hatnote templates targeting a nonexistent page, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 July 2022, at 22:40. [5] This also matched Soriano's well-reported interest in placing City Football Group as a lynchpin in the opening-up of national markets in which association football has not previously been able to secure a strong presence, through the operation of and investment in franchises in those countries. [5] Their discussions resulted in the announcement of New York City FC as MLS' 20th expansion side less than one year later in May 2013. Meanwhile, off the pitch City spent 10 million on revamping their Platt Lane academy base[65] as they formulated plans to produce a 100m training and academy facility on land opposite their stadium, studying training facilities around the world in an attempt to create the world's foremost development in its field. [69][70][71] Since the start of the 201617 season, Manchester City have been coached by former FC Barcelona player and coach and FC Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola.[72]. [21] The player-sharing element of the City network was first advertised with the high-profile transfer of Aaron Mooy from Melbourne City to Manchester City - an early case of utilising the network to support revenue generation[35] - with the 202021 season seeing Manchester City send 14 foreign-sourced youth players out on loan, predominantly to other group clubs. In their first season they won all seven of their First Phase games but performed less well in the Promotion Phase, missing out on the chance to ascend to the top division at the first attempt. In this environment, Melbourne City were able to sweep the board in their first season, going undefeated all season to win both the league and the playoff trophies[94] and setting a number of records. City's best European result in that timespan was a final in the 202021 UEFA Champions League where they finished as runners-up. [106] Nevertheless, they would win the Segunda Divisin again in 2019 to return to the top flight again. However, the Femen A team only came into existence in 2020 when local team FC Sant Pere Pescador sold their women's team to Girona, allowing Girona to operate a women's team at a more professional level. [128], On 25 July 2017, City Football Group signed a joint venture partnership with Goals Soccer Centres, a 5-a-side football pitch operator, to invest capital into the US operations of the company in order to expand across North America. [109], In 2021 Montevideo City Torque announced that they were creating a women's team, borne from City Football Group's desire to support and grow women's football;[110] they recruited both a senior team and an under-19 side from a group of 100 trialists.