A Chinese second-tier team, City Group's great unknown

Everyone knows that Manchester City belongs to a group that manages various football clubs. The City Group is owned by 3 organisations. While the majority is Abu Dhabi United Group (78%), the American company Silver Lake (10%) and China Media Capital and CITIC Group (12%) also have a stake.

The latter was the driving force behind the acquisition of one of the most unknown teams in the conglomerate. In addition to the Sky Blues, and precisely because of this word in the name, it is easy to recognise New York City of Major League Soccer in the USA, Montevideo City Torque in Uruguay, Mumbai City in India and Melbourne City in Australia.

There are not only 'Cities' in this company. Yokohama Marinos (Japan), Girona (Spain), Lommel SK (Belgium), Troyes (France), Bolivar (Bolivia), Palermo (Italy), Bahia (Brazil), as well as possibly the least familiar team to the public, Sichuan Jiuniu from China.

The club competes in the second tier of Chinese football, which is unusual for teams in this group. It was acquired in 2019 and has been growing notably in the silver division. From fighting for relegation or moving in the mid-lower parts of the table, the team has been looking upwards. After being between 4th and 6th place in the last few seasons, they are in 3rd place at the start of this season and are 4 points behind the top 2, the teams that go directly up to the Chinese Super League.

 

May 4, 2023