London/Mumbai: English Premier League giants Manchester City’s owners City Football Group (CFG) have found India as one of the best place to invest when it comes to football. And they have spotted two teams, in Mumbai FC and Jamshedpur. According to Ferran Soriano, chief executive, things will be finalised by the end of this year. An official of a of the club, who has been tracking the development of Indian football, said that this will be big boost to Indian football, and for the champions make foot marks on our soil is a big thing to happen to the country in general and the club in particular,” said about the Manchester City who has visited India last year watched a match between Jamshedpur and Mumbai City.
However, another official stated that Mumbai FC has been in focus in the last eight months and they could be the chosen ones, but nothing if official jhe said on conditions of annonymity. City owner Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi Royal Family, has recently purchased a Chinese third division club Sichuan Jiuniu, a seventh addition to their bouquet of clubs, which also include New York City, Melbourne City, Japan’s Yokohama F Marinos, Atletico Torque and Girona. “We have some interest in some markets and countries where there is a genuine football passion and opportunities, like China, but also India. So there might be other opportunities in Asia,” said Sorianio while talking to media later in the week.
The CEO said that City, currently on top of EPL points table, have been exploring the Indian market for the past two years now. “With all these developments, we have to be patient. We have been looking at India for nearly two years now. I would say this year we’ll end up doing an investment in India,” he said. City CEO Soriano termed it as a “natural pace of growth” where the club is looking at adding a few more clubs to their already growing list.
He said: “As we see it now, there is a natural pace of growth that we will follow that takes us to more than seven teams, but not 100 teams. “I cannot see 10 years ahead but the group might have two or three teams more. Is this going to change in five years and we’re going to have more? Maybe, [but] I don’t know that. But to complete the vision that we had six years ago, I think we will have maybe two or three clubs more.”
