Manchester City FC is the flagship club in the English Premier League under the parent ownership of City Football Group. This holding company also owns stakes in clubs all over the world, including the United States, Japan, Australia, Spain, Uruguay, Belgium, China, and more recently India.
The company has a compelling goal — to own a football team with ‘City’ in its name on each continent. For now, City Football Group is doing an excellent job of finding ‘City’ football clubs as they own clubs in five out of seven world continents.
If you’re not aware of the ‘City’ football clubs that are owned by City Football Group, keep reading to find out what they are.
Manchester City FC
As you are already aware, Manchester City is the most well-known football club under the ownership of City Football Group since 2013. Moreover, it is the only football club owned by this group competing in the English Premier League. Since 2019, the club has been regarded as the fifth most valuable club in the world, just behind Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich.
When looking at the number of trophies held by Manchester City, we can conclude that it is one of the most successful teams in England. As Manchester City is among the oldest clubs in Europe, the team’s first major trophy was in 1904 — the FA Cup. However, the team has three trophies that precede the FA Cup. All in all, Manchester City has 26 major domestic and European titles, with the only major European title being the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup which they won in 1970.
Mumbai City FC
Most recently, City Football Group has acquired a majority stake in Mumbai City. Mumbai City is a relatively young professional football club that competes in the Indian Super League. The club’s first season was in 2014. In its early days, Mumbai City opted for many changes in leadership and management from Alexandre Guimarães to Jorge Costa. Currently, the team still lacks a head coach.
After a rocky start, a bit of hope for a brighter future after City Football Group acquired a 65% stake in the club in 2019 which was hotly reported by Mumbai City FC news outlets and media channels. CFG will work closely with the co-owners of the club to develop Mumbai City FC further.
Melbourne City FC
Another relatively young club, based in Bundoora, Melbourne, Australia has been under the ownership of City Football Group since 2014. The club’s original name was Melbourne Heart, but with the takeover from CFG, the club changed its name to Melbourne City FC. The name change was reported as a controversial decision, but it was done in order to correlate with City Group’s goals.
Unfortunately, Melbourne City FC does not have a lot of accomplishments under its belt as they only have one domestic title from 2016 — the FFA Cup. Current Melbourne City FC manager, Erick Mombaerts, transferred from a fellow CFG club, Yokohama F. Marinos in the hopes to bring more success to MCFC in the future.
New York City FC
New York City FC is a professional football team from New York, that competes at the highest level in American soccer — Major Soccer League. NYC FC is part of the Major League’s Eastern Conference. Since 2014 City Football Group has owned 80% of the team.
The team’s first captain was Spanish World Cup-winning forward David Villa but they are now led by Alexander Ring. As many of its club sisters that are owned by CFG, New York City FC hasn’t had a lot of success in the world of professional football. Ronny Deila as the team’s newest coach is in the spotlight to deliver better results than the previous three coaches in NYC FC’s short history.