Manchester City's parent company buys majority stake in Mumbai City FC

City Football Group expand to Indian Super League with their eighth club

Manchester City's parent company City Football Group has bought a majority share in Mumbai City FC. AP

The City Football Group has acquired a majority stake in its eighth football club.

The group, which owns Manchester City, has agreed a deal to take a 65 per cent stake in Mumbai City FC in the Indian Super League.

CFG also has majority stakes in New York City in the US, Melbourne City FC in Australia, Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay, Girona FC in Spain and Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China.

CFG Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said on cityfootballgroup.com: "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 are co-owned by Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor, have had Freddie Ljungberg, Nicolas Anelka and Diego Forlan as their marquee players in the past, and are currently placed seventh in the 10-team ISL.

Cricket-mad India is a big underachiever in football and have yet to make an appearance at a World Cup finals.

A number of European clubs have, however, gone to India over the last few years to set up academies on a franchise basis to establish a foothold in a market where the popularity of soccer is burgeoning.

The news comes a day after it was announced American technology company Silver Lake had acquired a 10 per cent stake in CFG in a £389million investment deal that values the group at £3.73billion (Dh 18.6 billion).

That takes the group's value above that of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United in figures published by Forbes in May.

___________

City Football Group senior clubs