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City Football Group (CFG) [Owner of Melbourne City]


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3 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Not sure where to put this...

Recent images coming out of CFA Melbourne show some sort of construction going on adjacent to the playing pitch(es) - does anyone know what it is?

Maybe apart of that Latrobe sport thingĀ 

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We've not played any other CFG team in Melbourne. It just doesn't seem to be on the Group's agenda. We played Manchester City on the Gold Coast - apparently because of the conditions placed on Manchester participating in whatever competition it was.

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  • 4 weeks later...
30 minutes ago, Dylan said:

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/suburban-rail-loop-can-we-build-it-yes-we-can-experts-say-20180828-p500ax.html

Ā 

Now this is so far down the line it probably wont happen. But if I did and Bundoora gets a station, I reckon that would basically lead to our stadium being at latrobe.Ā 

We wouldn't be Melbourne City then would we? Also why would we need a stadium? You say it like it's a given.Ā 

What is wrong with AAMI?Ā 

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32 minutes ago, Dylan said:

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/suburban-rail-loop-can-we-build-it-yes-we-can-experts-say-20180828-p500ax.html

Ā 

Now this is so far down the line it probably wont happen. But if I did and Bundoora gets a station, I reckon that would basically lead to our stadium being at latrobe.Ā 

Wish that 'Ring Rail' did happen. But if it ever got completed I might not even be living in Melbourne then

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1 hour ago, Forever City said:

Exactly, why spend millions on a new stadium when AAMI is, already next to existing transport infrastructure and It has a good location?

Because we will never own AAMI or even obtain a long-term lease over itĀ and will always have to pay to play there. If you own or have a long-term lease on your home ground you can start to generate income from the facilities in it.

But our own home ground is just a dream with the state that football is in in this country. Just too much uncertainty.

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17 hours ago, jw1739 said:

Because we will never own AAMI or even obtain a long-term lease over itĀ and will always have to pay to play there. If you own or have a long-term lease on your home ground you can start to generate income from the facilities in it.

But our own home ground is just a dream with the state that football is in in this country. Just too much uncertainty.

Why not? I imagine that when the current leases run out, CFG would be looking at getting a long term lease there. Would hate for us to move from AAMI, it is a brilliant stadium in the perfect location.

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On 8/28/2018 at 4:28 PM, Dylan said:

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/suburban-rail-loop-can-we-build-it-yes-we-can-experts-say-20180828-p500ax.html

Ā 

Now this is so far down the line it probably wont happen. But if I did and Bundoora gets a station, I reckon that would basically lead to our stadium being at latrobe.Ā 

If it eventually happens (I don't think it will) my guess isĀ the rail line will go to the RMIT end of Bundoora as that is where the empty tracks of land are.

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On 8/28/2018 at 4:28 PM, Dylan said:

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/suburban-rail-loop-can-we-build-it-yes-we-can-experts-say-20180828-p500ax.html

Ā 

Now this is so far down the line it probably wont happen. But if I did and Bundoora gets a station, I reckon that would basically lead to our stadium being at latrobe.Ā 

@DylanĀ Oh, that's good. A nicely embedded pun.

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1 minute ago, Deeming said:

If it eventually happens (I don't think it will) my guess isĀ the rail line will go to the RMIT end of Bundoora as that is where the empty tracks of land are.

Yeah you could be right. But.Ā there is also alot of land empty behind Latrobe as well and the promotional material did have pictures of Northland... but that could be nothing.Ā 

There is only really two ways this happens. Either both sides agree with it and the design and construction is handled by departments and not politicians (as if that last part would happen)Ā 

Or Labor wins and the project gets too far down the line etc etc

1 minute ago, jw1739 said:

@DylanĀ Oh, that's good. A nicely embedded pun.

One of those unintentional but ill take the credit puns

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HeyĀ all. I've been real busy where I am, but I still try to follow City closely (however unfortunately I can't watchĀ too many of the team's matches, hence there's not a lot of comments for me to make).Ā 

Ā 

Anyway I've seen some fascinating reporting on the team in the lead up to this intriguing season. Here's a big history on CFG and the club:

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How Manchester City developed a global network of clubs

Daniel Slack-Smith

September 3, 2018

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In an extract from his new book Killing The Game, Daniel Slack-Smith describes City Football Group's acquisition ofĀ six football clubs on five continents

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While City Football Group was still in the process of securing the expansion licence for New York City in 2013, the emerging football group was already looking for new opportunities to bring additional clubs into its ecosystem.

To the surprise of many, the first place that CFG went after New York City was Melbourne, Australia, through the acquisition of Melbourne Heart FC and its rebranding as Melbourne City FC in 2014.

ā€œAustralia was opportunistic,ā€ says CFG Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak. ā€œI mean, I donā€™t think we sat down and said, ā€˜You know what? Weā€™ve looked around the world, and Australia is the first place weā€™re going to invest in.ā€™ No, it wasnā€™t that. We had decided that the global idea made sense, and that the City Football Group concept needed to be tested, and Australia came up as an opportunity that was a relatively safe, manageable and risk-controlled testing ground for that new vision. It came up, we took the opportunity, and then it grew from there.ā€

Ferran Soriano says CFG first considered investing in China, but eventually settled on Australia as its initial launching pad into Asia.

ā€œAt the time, the way we were thinking about expanding was by looking at two elements,ā€ he explains. ā€œThe first element was the size of the market and its potential for future growth, so we were looking at places where we thought that football and sports in general were going to grow, like China or India, and places where football was not the number one sport, but we believed it could grow to become the number one or number two sport, like the US and Australia.ā€

On the basis of this first element, CFG decided that China represented the greatest potential opportunity, and began exploring the concept of investing in a club in a major Chinese city.

ā€œHowever, the other factor that we had to consider was stability,ā€ says Soriano, ā€œso places where the league was solid, and that was one of the things that eventually led us to Australia. Australia was a stable environment. At that time, the Chinese league was not as well-organised and professionalised as it is now. So, we went for Australia, which at that time was more similar to New York. There was an opportunity in Sydney, but ultimately we found an opportunity in Melbourne that we liked very much.ā€

Melbourne Heart was established in 2009 as the second A-League team to set up shop in Australiaā€™s second largest city. It entered the competition a year later in 2010, and made the finals just once in its first three seasons, before its founders began quietly making plans to sell the Club.

The opportunity to acquire Melbourne Heart was brought to CFG in late 2013 by Bart Campbell, the Chairman of National Rugby League side, the Melbourne Storm, which shared a stadium with the four-year-old football club, who had become aware that its owners were looking to exit.

ā€œIā€™d heard that City Football Group were looking at an A-League club in Sydney,ā€ says Campbell, ā€œand I had already seen what they had done in New York. So, I met up with Simon [Pearce], and I said, ā€˜I know youā€™re focusing your efforts on a team in Sydney, but just for the record, there is an opportunity with a club in Melbourne, and we would be interested in partnering with you to provide some in-market support here,ā€™ and that didnā€™t sound entirely crazy to him.ā€

Pearce confirmed CFGā€™s interest in the opportunity, but thought having Campbell front the deal gave the two parties a much better chance of getting the Club for a reasonable price. ADUG and its officials knew from experience that the mere mention of ā€˜Manchester Cityā€™ or ā€˜Abu Dhabiā€™ tended to give wide-eyed sellers unreasonable expectations for the value of their assets.

ā€œI told Bart that the problem for me is that every time we get close to something, somebody is going to put an ā€˜Abu Dhabi premiumā€™ on it, and we are not going to overpay,ā€ explains Pearce. ā€œI said, ā€˜We are not anybodyā€™s fools. So, if you are prepared to front that for me, then letā€™s talk about you and your partners coming in as minority shareholders.ā€™ā€

Campbell agreed, and negotiations proceeded on the basis that the owners of the Melbourne Storm would own 80 per cent of Melbourne Heart, and the remaining 20 per cent would be held by an unnamed Premier League club. It was only when the deal was almost done that Campbell revealed to the sellers that the 80/20 split would in fact be the other way around. CFG would own the lionā€™s share of the Club, and the Melbourne Storm ownership would be the minority shareholder.

Melbourne Heart was duly sold to CFG and its minor partners for AU$11.25m on January 23, 2014. Later that day, Melbourne Heart CEO, Scott Munn, received an ominous phone call from CFG director, Simon Pearce, asking him to gather his senior leadership team and bring them to the Crown Hotel in Melbourne for an urgent meeting with the new ownership.

ā€œSimon said to me ā€˜Look, can you get your Head of Commercial, Head of Football, Head of Finance and yourself, and come and meet us at the Crown in the city?ā€™ So, I went and got them all, and I remember Brad Rowse [the Clubā€™s Head of Commercial] in particular was like, ā€˜This is it. They are going to sack us all today,ā€™ā€ recalls Munn.

Rowse doesnā€™t deny he was bracing for bad news.

ā€œMy thoughts were that, normally when you get a big corporate takeover, they would get rid of the executive team and put their own people in,ā€ says Rowse. ā€œSo, we were having a bit of a talk in jest, but also with a bit of concern as well. We were thinking, ā€˜Well, what are you going to do next?ā€™ā€

ā€œClearly, weā€™re nervous,ā€ admits Munn, laughing about the incident four years later, ā€œand Bradā€™s like, ā€˜Letā€™s stick together, and if they try to ask us to come up individually, weā€™ll all go as one!ā€™ā€

ā€œWeā€™d also been told two oā€™clock or something,ā€ adds Rowse, ā€œand then it drifted out to almost four in the afternoon, and we were still sitting there in this hotel lobby, and the longer it went on, the more bleak it looked for us.ā€

ā€œEventually they called us up,ā€ says Munn, ā€œand it was Ferran [Soriano], Simon [Pearce] and Brian [Marwood]. Simon and Ferran spoke, and then Simon said, ā€˜I am going to ask you one question, and I want each of you to answer it.ā€™ā€

ā€œHe said, ā€˜I want you to tell me what keeps you awake at night,ā€™ and he started with the first person. It was Paul Jeffrey [Head of Finance], and Paul said ā€˜Cash flow. We have no cash flow, we have to scrimp and save to find the money to pay the wages on the 15th of every month.ā€™ā€

ā€œSimon said, ā€˜No problem. We have your bank details and tomorrow morning there will be enough cash in the bank for the next 12 months.ā€™ā€

ā€œPaul says, ā€˜Okay, fantastic. Iā€™ll sleep well tonight.ā€™ā€

ā€œThen he went to Brad and asked the same question, and Brad said ā€˜Weā€™ve had [Australiaā€™s oldest bank] Westpac as our major sponsor for five years and they have just told us they are not going to renew front-of-shirt next year. Simon said, ā€˜No problem. We think Etihad wants to take front-of-shirt next year,ā€™ and Brad was like, ā€˜Okay, great.ā€™ā€

ā€œHe then went to John Didulica [General Manager, Football], and John said, ā€˜We finished second-to-last [in 2012-13], and weā€™re at the bottom of the table now.ā€™ Simon said, ā€˜Well, weā€™ve just won the Premier League, and Brian is going to fix your football department.ā€™ John said, ā€˜Thatā€™s fine with me.ā€™ā€

ā€œThen they asked me,ā€ recalls Munn, ā€œand I said, ā€˜Nothing, because youā€™ve just fixed everything that kept me awake at night.ā€™ā€

Munn, who remains CEO of Melbourne City FC today, says the light-hearted exchange was an important moment.

ā€œIt was a bit of an icebreaker,ā€ he says, ā€œbecause at that point we started thinking, ā€˜Okay, these guys seem like good people.ā€™ I remember both Brian and Simon spoke about wanting the Club to be successful. They said things like, ā€˜We want to invest. We want to give you an opportunity to succeed. We are not here to come in and judge people by whatā€™s happened in the past. We are not here to come in and sack people. We are just going to understand the business. We are going to understand the people. Then weā€™ll make it right, and some things weā€™ll get wrong, and then weā€™ll change it and start again.ā€™ā€

The message was reassuring. However, Munn admits that he and his colleagues still harboured some doubts as they left that hotel suite high above Melbourneā€™s Yarra River.

ā€œI remember leaving,ā€ says Munn, ā€œand a few of us were joking and saying, ā€˜Sure, weā€™re just going to suck all your brains and get three months out of you, and then weā€™re going to sack you,ā€™ and all that sort of stuff, but the reality is that those comments of ā€˜We just want to understand the business, and we want to understand the people, and the good people will be able to blossom, and those that canā€™t embrace it will move on,ā€™ that is pretty much the reality of whatā€™s happened.ā€

For some of CFGā€™s first boots on the ground, the modest atmosphere they found in Melbourne was eerily familiar.

ā€œIt felt like a much smaller-scale Manchester City around the time ADUG had taken it over,ā€ says Marwood, who audited Melbourne Heartā€™s football department immediately after the takeover. ā€œIt was a club that was obviously operating on a very small budget. Basically, the CEO, Scott [Munn], and John Didulica, the Football Director, were doing ten roles each. It was great because it had a real community spirit and no kind of hierarchy with stuff. No matter who you were, everybody just kind of mucked in and got stuff done. One minute John was doing the contracts for the players, and the next minute heā€™s serving them lunches or getting the kit washed. It was a big removal from where weā€™d got to in Manchester by then.ā€

ā€œIt was obviously not an ideal office environment,ā€ recalls CFGā€™s Tom Glick, who visited the Club shortly after the acquisition to evaluate its commercial capabilities. ā€œIt was far from the stadium, which was not traditional, and it was a small staff that was doing a lot and wearing a lot of hats. I related to it though, especially with some of the things I had done and places I had been earlier in my career, coming up through Minor League Baseball. You could sense that they were a group of people that was surviving, but at the same time there was this real commercial competency. One of the things I remember is their sponsorship team was the best in the League. They were selling more than anybody else, yet had this team that was finishing eighth, ninth, tenth in the table.ā€

Don Dransfield, who was redeployed from New York to Melbourne immediately after the acquisition to lead the development of a business plan for CFGā€™s newest club, had a similar experience when he attended his first A-League game in the small country town of Albury within days of his arrival.

ā€œIā€™d received all the financials from this guy called ā€˜P.J.ā€™ [Paul Jeffrey] and they were brilliant,ā€ recalls Dransfield. ā€œThey were really professionally done. I hadnā€™t met him yet though, so when I got to the game, Scott said he would introduce me to him. We then ran along and went to the merchandise store, and ā€˜P.J.ā€™ was there selling shirts. This guy was the financial controller for the Club. Heā€™d done all of the due diligence stuff for the sale to a really professional standard, but he was also the guy selling shirts and taking cash on match day. I couldnā€™t believe that.ā€

That combination of competency and goodwill was one of the main reasons why CFG ultimately decided to integrate the Melbourne Heart staff into the Group rather than to outsource many its non-football operations to the Melbourne Storm [the National Rugby League club owned by CFGā€™s minority partner in the transaction], as had been originally considered. According to Soriano, the learnings from that integration process continue to deliver benefits to the Group today.

ā€œIt was important,ā€ says Soriano, ā€œbecause the value of our investment in Australia was obviously the team itself, but also the fact that it enabled us to create the Group mechanism that we needed. As a result, I think today we have a system where we can add a new club, I am not going to say effortlessly, but with a reasonable amount of effort, and it is not a drama. This is because we now have the systems on the football side, on the commercial side, and on the IT side, that allow us to do this.ā€

Dransfield agrees that the significance of the Melbourne acquisition has always been greater than the sum of its price.

ā€œMelbourne didnā€™t complete the story, but it at least allowed us to start to tell the story,ā€ he says, of Melbourneā€™s strategic importance to CFG at the time. ā€œBefore then, we just had these two anchor assets. This big Premier League club [Manchester City FC], and then this big and obviously very expensive asset in a prime city in the US [New York City FC]. What Melbourne allowed us to do in a relatively inexpensive way was to complete that part of the arc, but in a salary-capped environment where you didnā€™t have some of the issues around match fixing, corruption and other allegations that you had in a lot of the markets that we were looking at. It was a smart, low cost way of doing that.ā€

Melbourne Heart was renamed Melbourne City FC in June 2014 and CFG bought out its minority shareholder the following year to own 100 per cent of the Club.

The next stop for the emerging CFG was ten hours flying time away in Yokohama, Japan. In July 2014, CFG announced an unusual partnership with Nissan that saw the Japanese automaker become a global sponsor of CFG, two months after CFG had bought a 20 per cent stake in the Nissan-owned J-League club, Yokohama F. Marinos.

ā€œThe Yokohama arrangement is probably a different model because that one was born off the back of our commercial deal with Nissan,ā€ says Marwood. ā€œNissan owned Yokohama Marinos, and they were very open with us saying, ā€˜Listen, we make cars, but weā€™ve got this football club that is part of our DNA, because itā€™s right in the heart of Yokohama, and weā€™d like you to help us with its football operations.ā€™ā€

ā€œThe club was struggling,ā€ says Omar Berrada, now Manchester Cityā€™s Chief Operating Officer. ā€œIt was struggling financially and it was struggling on the pitch. Thatā€™s when the idea came up of, ā€˜Okay, if we came in and helped you make the club more successful, would you come in as a global sponsor?ā€™ā€

That double coincidence of wants remains at the heart of the CFG-Nissan partnership today.

ā€œSo, as part of the relationship,ā€ explains Berrada, ā€œwe bought a stake [in Yokohama F. Marinos], and committed to helping them on two fronts. First, on the commercial side, by leveraging our global sales network to help bring them sponsors, and second, helping them on the football front.ā€

hree years after Yokohama, the next two clubs to join CFG were Uruguayā€™s Club AtlĆ©tico Torque [100 per cent owned by CFG under an agreement signed in April 2017] and Spainā€™s Girona FC [44.3 per cent owned by CFG since August 2017].

The investment in Girona FC is already paying dividends, with CFG officials estimating that the Club has quadrupled in value since securing promotion from the Spanish Second Division and staying up after its first season in La Liga in 2017-18. The connection to Girona FC has been beneficial in other ways, with Manchester Cityā€™s Pablo Maffeo sold to Stuttgart FC in May 2018 for L8.8m with a 25 per cent sell-on clause, after playing the last two seasons on loan at the Spanish club.

The rationale behind CFGā€™s acquisition of Club AtlĆ©tico Torque is at least partly geographical.

ā€œTorque gives us a foothold into South America,ā€ says Al Mubarak. ā€œItā€™s in Uruguay, which has historically been one of the most successful places in terms of producing young talent. Itā€™s a good legal jurisdiction and a good economic place to invest, and CFG is uniquely equipped to help the Club succeed and grow.ā€

ā€œUruguay is a very small country,ā€ says Soriano. ā€œOnly 3.5 million people. But, they are two-time winners of the World Cup. The amount of good players to have come from there is spectacular. In the case of Torque, this was a very small team. We bought the team, it got promoted to the first division, and we hope that we can develop some very good talent there.ā€

Early signs are positive, with 19-year-old Argentine midfielder Valentin Castellanos moving to New York City FC on loan [with an option to purchase] from Club AtlƩtico Torque in July 2018. Castellanos is not the first, and is unlikely to be the last, promising young player to move from one CFG club to another in order to take the next step in their career.

In early 2014, in a deal negotiated just days before CFGā€™s acquisition of Melbourne City and completed after it, the Club signed a talented Australian midfielder by the name of Aaron Mooy, on a free transfer from another A-League club. In 2016, after two strong seasons at Melbourne City, Mooy was sold to sister club, Manchester City, who immediately loaned him out to Huddersfield Town. There, Mooy was instrumental in the Terriers gaining promotion from the EFL Championship to the Premier League, taking out the Clubā€™s Player of the Season award in 2016-17. In June 2017, Huddersfield Town signed Mooy permanently from Manchester City for a fee of L8m [potentially rising to L10m].

The Mooy fee [AU$14-18m] was worth more than the amount that CFG paid for Melbourne City FC [AU$11.25m] in 2014.

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Killing The Game: the inside story behind the transformation of Manchester City and the creation of City Football Group is available to buy on AmazonĀ [this story is from this book here]

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https://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/how-manchester-city-developed-a-global-network-of-clubs-1.766476

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14 hours ago, jw1739 said:

@Murfy1Welcome back Murf. Good to have you on-line again. The excerpt you quote concentrates on the business side of CFG. Is the whole book like that? Is there any mention elsewhere of the fans of the various clubs, and how they feel about this "brave new world" that they find themselves in?

It's good to be posting again.

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I'd say the whole book is like that, but I'll let the book speak for itself; here's the synopsis:Ā 

Quote

In September 2008, when His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan sensationally acquired English footballā€™s favourite hard luck story, and began recruiting some of the worldā€™s most talented footballers, the new Manchester City announced itself to a sceptical world.
Over the next ten years, Manchester City was transformed from a place where players trained with rusted weights and torn punching bags to a genuine powerhouse of global football with an elite training campus that is the envy of players and coaches worldwide.
One FA Cup, three League Cups and three Premier League titles later, Manchester City now has only Europe to conquer, while its ownership company, City Football Group, which owns stakes in six football clubs on five continents, was valued at US$3bn in 2015.Ā 
The rise of Manchester City from perennial underachievers to Premier League record-breakers has been the biggest story in English football over the last decade. Based on exclusive interviews with more than 50 current and former officials of Manchester City, City Football Group, and Abu Dhabi United Group, this is the definitive inside account of how it happened.
A must read for all City fans, and anybody with an interest in the business of sports, Killing The Game: The Inside Story Behind The Transformation Of Manchester City And The Creation Of City Football Group, takes you inside one of the most audacious rebuilding projects in the history of modern sport.

About The Author:
Daniel Slack-Smith is a writer and consultant with significant experience in the UAE, UK, US and Australia. As a long-term advisor to the Abu Dhabi United Group he has had a front row seat to the transformation of Manchester City and the development of City Football Group. Born in Sydney, Australia, he has previously worked in policy and communications roles with a mix of public, private and not-for-profit organisations. He now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Killing-Game-transformation-Manchester-creation-ebook/dp/B07GYSMBDG/ref=sr_1_1/356-2253118-0566166?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1536073469&sr=1-1&keywords=Killing+The+Game%3A+The+inside+story+behind+the+transformation+of+Manchester+City+and+the+creation+of+City+Football+Group

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It sounds like a really fascinating insider's guide to CFG, as well as their takeover and ownership of Melbourne Heart/City. I might well read this ebook when I have the chance (it was just released this week, and by the way it will seemingly be available in print copies in October.

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There's a good summary here of the "15 biggest takeaways" from this book:Ā https://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/what-killing-the-game-tells-us-about-a-decade-of-change-at-manchester-city-1.766473

Also, here's an interview with the author:Ā https://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/manchester-city-combined-aggression-and-patience-to-become-part-of-football-s-elite-1.766468

Ā 

Overall what I've seen here improves the way I look at CFG. Very positive approach, focused on problem solving. Also that "aggressive and patient" notion rings true for what they are trying to do here, I think.

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FIFA set to clamp down on big club player loan deals

13th September 2018

By Andrew Warshaw

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September 13 ā€“ FIFA are to put a stop to elite clubs sending unlimited numbers of players out on loan, according to reports from Germany.

Squad sizes and excesses in the transfer market have long been a thorny subject and, according to Bild Sport, FIFA plans to limit the number of players out on loan to eight pending agreement from other stakeholders like FIFA and the European Clubs Association.

In addition, a maximum of three players would be allowed to be loaned to the same club at the same time, the exception being those under the age of 21 who have been trained by their home club and have been under contract there for an extended period of time.

If the report is true it will particularly hit clubs like Chelsea who have made a habit of buying up players and then sending them out on loan. Juventus are another who have used the practice consistently. Manchester City similarly, with the multi-club model of their City Football Group owners, could also have their player development strategy impacted.

Loan deals are designed in theory to allow young players to gain invaluable experience elsewhere but many, not least FIFA president Gianni Infantino, believe the system exploits the transfer window to an alarming extent.

How the idea would affect clubs with satellite teams is one of many conundrumsĀ but the system clearly needs to be better managed. As it stands now, it undermines the integrity of the game and shouldnā€™t be there simply to benefit a few elite clubs who have the resources to accumulate any number of players and farm them out to get them off the wage bill.

Contact the writer of this story at moc.llabtoofdlrowedisni@wahsraw.werdna

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http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2018/09/13/fifa-set-clamp-big-club-player-loan-deals/#.W59AEfiLmoQ.twitter

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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/ffas-plea-vote-to-block-these-changes-513266

Quote

FFA's plea: Vote to block these changes!

Football Federation Australia have made a last minute plea to state federations to block the FIFA-instigated changes ahead of an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday.

They could order the FFA executive group is sacked and install a normalisation committee while change is pushed through regardless.

Or they could simply suspend the FFA from FIFA until they accept the changes proposed.

The group of rebels - which includes A-League clubs bosses, led by Melbourne City, the players' union PFA plus NPL clubs, fans and the larger state federations ā€“ believe the CRWG was effectively FIFA's normalisation committee step in the process.

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Reading that report in full seems to indicate to me that Lowy not seeking re-election is not unconditional? I thought that he was going to step down regardless.

Irrespective of that, this nonsense just has to stop. It's already gone on far too long. One man, who should never have been appointed in the first place, cannot be allowed to stand in the way of reform.

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  • 1 month later...

CFG have been named in the current ongoing leaks from Spiegel. Mainly to do with fraud, bribery, and the formation of a European superleague.

Very small chance this could affect us, but if they get hit with any major financial penalties or punishments we could see very little investment for the foreseeable future.

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5 hours ago, haz said:

CFG have been named in the current ongoing leaks from Spiegel. Mainly to do with fraud, bribery, and the formation of a European superleague.

Very small chance this could affect us, but if they get hit with any major financial penalties or punishments we could see very little investment for the foreseeable future.

No change then

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the superleague this is all the major clubs in europe, not just CFG.

The deal with UEFA on taking a a lesser penalty in a deal is hardly abnormal in the sports or business world. If anything, UEFA may have to explain but not CFG. Werent AC Milan kicked out of the Europa league due to FFP, then re-admitted after the new owner appealed to them etc. Happens all the time.

That's even if there is any truth to any of it.

Edited by CityHeart
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16 hours ago, haz said:

If they did leave you would be eating your words.

I'm not so sure about that. I don't think you'd see an out-pouring of grief from the fans if CFG walked away from us. IMO many would heave a sigh of relief.

I admit to being enthusiastic when CFG bought us. However, I feel very little emotional investment in the club as it is at the moment.

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I think peopleĀ romantacize how this club looked like at the end of the Melbourne Heart days. On the morning when it was announced that there was going to be ownership changes I definitely thought either A ) The license was being handed back to the FFA, or B )Ā Ā South Melbourne had purchased it.

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