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The City Football Group has taken a major step into India’s potentially lucrative market
The owners of Manchester City have become the majority shareholders of Indian Super League side Mumbai City.
The City Football Group has purchased a 65 per cent stake in the club, with the remaining 35% retained by existing shareholders Ranbir Kapoor – a renowned actor and filmmaker – and Bimal Parekh.
Mumbai are the eighth football club to fall under the CFG umbrella, along with Premier League champions Manchester City, New York City in MLS, Australia’s Melbourne City, Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Club Atletico Torque of Uruguay, Girona in Spain and Sichuan Jiuniu in China.
CFG chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in a statement: “We believe that this investment will deliver transformative benefits to Mumbai City FC, to City Football Group and to Indian football as a whole.
“City Football Group is committed to the future of football in India and to the potential for Mumbai City FC within that future.
“We are very much looking forward to playing an active role in Mumbai City FC’s fan and local communities, and working with our co-owners to further develop the club as quickly as possible.”
Mumbai City, who play at the 8,000-seater Mumbai Football Arena, were launched in 2014.
They finished third in the ISL in the 2018-19 regular season before losing to Goa in the post-season play-offs. They have won one of their opening five matches in 2019-20.
CFG, who already had a presence in Mumbai through charitable campaign Cityzens Giving, was bolstered this week by a €500 million investment from private equity firm Silver Lake.
The deal saw CFG valued at $4.8billion, a figure large enough that share prices for domestic rivals Manchester United jumped on the New York stock exchange by as much as 14 per cent.
City, bought in 2008 by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also announced record club revenues this month of £535.2m.
Speaking to Sky Sports this week, Al Mubarak made it clear that expansion in India was a priority for CFG given the established ventures in the United States and China.
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“When we look at growth, we look at three major markets – the United States, China and India,” he said.
“We’ve invested in New York and that’s our US presence in MLS, we’ve invested in China and certainly India is the next big market that we’d like to have a position in.
“I hope very soon we’ll be able to make our move into that market and continue our growth trajectory in the right markets globally.”
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