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

[Jovan]

Good. Apart from announcing a 20 goal a year striker this is promising. 

There are endless examples throughout our history of marketing failures and bumblings of missed opportunities. So many times I have just shook my head at the lost chances of making an impact off the field. 

Now we have a dedicated marketing department. Someone responsible for what comes out and I'm assuming someone with a record of success so it can only be miles better.

Medical and injury side is just a no brainer we get that right and do it the best in the league and its worth at least 3 quality players extra per season.

Good on them for making a statement. 

 

Now deliver!

[Thrillhouse]

the club tweeting about how they've had man city at the training ground for the first time makes me even more angry with how everythings been handled. there's been fucking match after parties at nightclubs with some players heading out, and players going to rebel sport for an event but we can't get a single training session or anything

[belaguttman]

Yes, there's been nothing for us. The franchise could have even linked some sort of opportunity to an early renewal of our season ticket but even that isn't enough to offer us anything

[jw1739]

IMO the visit could not have been handled any worse even if they'd tried to do so. Hope the new marketing guru reads this forum - he's got plenty on his plate after this shameful episode.

[n i k o]

IMO the ICC are pricks and have contracts that wouldn't even let one of the teams breath incorrectly let alone invite members of a different club to attend even a free training session. We may be owned by City Group but we aren't Manchester City. 

[belaguttman]

IMO the ICC are pricks and have contracts that wouldn't even let one of the teams breath incorrectly let alone invite members of a different club to attend even a free training session. We may be owned by City Group but we aren't Manchester City. 

ICC are only in it for ICC but CFG should be representing our interests

[n i k o]

ICC are only in it for ICC but CFG should be representing our interests

Yes but ICC has paid for all expenses for Manchester City being here right now. Which means ICC says to jump and each club asks how high. Each club would be bound by a legal contract to adhere to. 

[Attack11]

Whilst it's good to have a goal or a target 14k members. What they need to understand once and for all.. It doesn't matter who you bring, what you spend or how great the "match day experience" is, if the product on the field is shit, performances are below the expected then 14k members may as well be a dream! 

The business is Football and it's easy "Put the ball in the back of the net" more times than your opponent and people will come !

[belaguttman]

Yes but ICC has paid for all expenses for Manchester City being here right now. Which means ICC says to jump and each club asks how high. Each club would be bound by a legal contract to adhere to. 

sure, but we don't seem to feature much in CFG's strategic plan, they don't even seem particularly keen to promote us in our own city

[M13]

sure, but we don't seem to feature much in CFG's strategic plan, they don't even seem particularly keen to promote us in our own city

As I recall it there was early this year a comment from CFG saying that they had taken note how fans in Melbourne and New York had been very vocal in their views about cross promotion and how they felt that it worked against the local club so there had been a bit of CFG policy change in regards things like that.
 

[jw1739]

As I recall it there was early this year a comment from CFG saying that they had taken note how fans in Melbourne and New York had been very vocal in their views about cross promotion and how they felt that it worked against the local club so there had been a bit of CFG policy change in regards things like that.

I don't see much evidence of that policy change. Much of the material on our club's website is about Manchester City and/or CFG, and is not specific to Melbourne City.  I'd like to read about what's going on in our club, and I'm not much interested in all this corporate stuff or what big sister is doing.

[K-aram92]

I don't see much evidence of that policy change. Much of the material on our club's website is about Manchester City and/or CFG, and is not specific to Melbourne City.  I'd like to read about what's going on in our club, and I'm not much interested in all this corporate stuff or what big sister is doing.

100% agree. When I see articles talking about new corporate partnerships being formed, I don't even read it. Just doesn't interest me that much. And as awesome as it is to see Manchester City in Melbourne for the ICC and playing a friendly against us (even know it wasn't in Melbourne), I honestly don't give a f**k about them. For one, they're not the team I support in the EPL, but secondly and more importantly, they're not the reason I go onto these forums and they're not the reason I go onto the Melbourne City website. If I wanted news on Manchester, I'd go on their website! Hearing that they've made a surprise visit to our training session just makes me think, who the f**k cares! Stop enforcing this idea that it is a privilege that they are here and start giving us reasons to believe that we're important too! 

 

And before anyone says that we are clearly third in the pecking order at CFG, I understand that but it still doesn't mean we should be getting more news about our sister club than our club on OUR website! 

[charlibub]

CFG has just spent $15million on a facility for the team. They simply do as they please for the good of the brand. It's a powerful brand worldwide. $15million ain't chicken feed either mind you.

I challenge anyone who tells me that Heart was a better club in any aspect football/marketing related.

[Red or Dead]

CFG has just spent $15million on a facility for the team. They simply do as they please for the good of the brand. It's a powerful brand worldwide. $15million ain't chicken feed either mind you.

I challenge anyone who tells me that Heart was a better club in any aspect football/marketing related.

Heart had better colours!

[Tony999]

CFG 

[M13]

I don't see much evidence of that policy change. Much of the material on our club's website is about Manchester City and/or CFG, and is not specific to Melbourne City.  I'd like to read about what's going on in our club, and I'm not much interested in all this corporate stuff or what big sister is doing.

Melbourne City are CFG though.. Just as Manchester City or New York City.
As they say in the New York forum, "you date the girl, not her parents.." but then they are quite used to corporate sports groups in the US, they got dozens of them.

Edited July 23, 2015 by M13

[Falastur]

100% agree. When I see articles talking about new corporate partnerships being formed, I don't even read it. Just doesn't interest me that much. And as awesome as it is to see Manchester City in Melbourne for the ICC and playing a friendly against us (even know it wasn't in Melbourne), I honestly don't give a f**k about them. For one, they're not the team I support in the EPL, but secondly and more importantly, they're not the reason I go onto these forums and they're not the reason I go onto the Melbourne City website. If I wanted news on Manchester, I'd go on their website! Hearing that they've made a surprise visit to our training session just makes me think, who the f**k cares! Stop enforcing this idea that it is a privilege that they are here and start giving us reasons to believe that we're important too! 

 

And before anyone says that we are clearly third in the pecking order at CFG, I understand that but it still doesn't mean we should be getting more news about our sister club than our club on OUR website! 

I get that, and I would be disappointed too. I keep up with Melbourne City headlines but not the club website outside of game-related info, but I just took a look there and the only Manchester City-related stuff seems largely to be to do with the match between the two MCFCs. Admittedly there's a few "Manchester Special"s, but I would suspect they are a - perhaps misguided - attempt at hyping the game between the two clubs by highlighting some of the players who might be playing. I suspect that by the time Manchester City have flown on to Vietnam, you'll see little more of the cross-promotions.

That said, if it keeps happening, then keep complaining. I know that for the first year or so of NYCFC's existence, their twitter feed spammed the heck out of Manchester City-related stuff, and the fans were in uproar over it. They complained vociferously, and then suddenly it faded into nothingness. Now MCFC barely gets mentioned on @NYCFC at all. I figured the same had happened on @MelbourneCity and so on, but if it's still happening then force them to do the same.

[NewConvert]

Well they are on a learning curve - and hopefully all the complaining will have an impact for any future tour of the clubs under the CFG umbrella. Another example may well be that the MCG gets booked for a month so that no  other game can take place and the ground staff will be able to improve on the pitch. It will cost more but the ICC may deem it worth it.

[Dylan]

Well they are on a learning curve - and hopefully all the complaining will have an impact for any future tour of the clubs under the CFG umbrella. Another example may well be that the MCG gets booked for a month so that no  other game can take place and the ground staff will be able to improve on the pitch. It will cost more but the ICC may deem it worth it.

Lol no chance. 

[n i k o]

The message has either not been passed on down the chain of command or it was a lie from the start. Soriano stated very clearly that this will not be a mini Manchester City. So far in so many aspects it is everything but. 

[jw1739]

The message has either not been passed on down the chain of command or it was a lie from the start. Soriano stated very clearly that this will not be a mini Manchester City. So far in so many aspects it is everything but. 

I tend to think it's actually the local administration rather than Manchester. But whichever it is, or even if it's both of them, I agree with you that many things are not quite working out the way I think many of us thought. Our failure so far to utilise a single ManC EDS player is one aspect that stands out for me - instead we sign end-of-career players like Duff and now Hughes - and I put that down to JvS' stubbornness.

[Red or Dead]

I think Scott Munn has passed on his little-man syndrome to Melbourne City.

[jw1739]

I think Scott Munn has passed on his little-man syndrome to Melbourne City.

I am astonished that he is still there TBH - completely and utterly astonished. I have to confess that I thought he would be the number 1 casualty in the change in ownership. 

[pattyd89]

Josep Gombau linked to New York City FC coaching staff - was previously on Yokohama shortlist - CFG watching A League closely it seems!

This is either a JVS is no good, let's poach the best A League coaching talent - OR they think JVS is OK but taking him to a sister club will just send the message we are last in the pecking order. 

Probably the 1st option.

[Info@VW]

He got offered the Melbourne City job... "I have a contract with Adelaide and wish to see it out, also I want to win a title with Adelaide."

lol Money talks bullshit walks. 

[jw1739]

Josep Gombau linked to New York City FC coaching staff - was previously on Yokohama shortlist - CFG watching A League closely it seems!

This is either a JVS is no good, let's poach the best A League coaching talent - OR they think JVS is OK but taking him to a sister club will just send the message we are last in the pecking order. 

Probably the 1st option.

Wish someone would poach JvS...

[Kiro Kompiro]

Can't agree with all the negativity against CFG.

Since taking over they have spend $12mill to buy the licence- and lets face, thats ALL they bought, its not as if they bought significant good-will-plus another $15 mill on a training base, plus several overseas training trips to broaden the experiences of the shit kickers they inherited, and they are now clearing the deadwood as soon as contractual obligations allow them too.

There is NOTHING wrong with Man City taking priority on the website during their visit, given that they ARE a top 4 premier league that WE played against. (And yes it would have been better for the game to be In Melbourne, but they were here playing another promoters tournament, and we got to watch the game on TV when it was originally going to be behind closed doors).  Think about that: what chances that a top 4 EPL team would play against us even for pre-season game under the previous regime?

Koren has been a failure, granted.  But they probably looked at the dollar value of the League, the squads, our attendances, and were limited by who else would actually want to come down to play for us.  It wouldn't have made sense to them to spend $4+ mill per season on ONE player in a squad which finished last and obviously had bigger problems than one player could fix. 

Having said that, I think they under-estimate where they could take this club (and league) with a solid squad AND a $4million marquee. It will force the other mob in town to lift their marquee quality as well, as they've been able to get complacent because we have not been a serious threat. A Melbourne Grand Final ith 2-4 quality marquees on the pitch could exceed any derby attendance they might get at Etihad-in Manchester.

 

[malloy]

Wish someone would poach JvS...

Victory, please.

[Murfy1]

Some interesting mentions of Melbourne City FC in this Marwood interview:

 

A day with Brian Marwood: Building a bright future for City Football Group

 

by Andy Lewis

Thursday 23 July 2015

 

Manchester City have been making history on the pitch but off it, they're focused on becoming a world leader.

The City Football Group (CFG) now comprises four clubs with the Blues joined by Japan’s Yokohama F. Marinos, Major League Soccer’s New York City and Melbourne, who faced Manuel Pellegrini’s team in the first actual match between two CFG clubs to kick off the two-time Premier League winners’ pre-season campaign.

What started with the Abu Dhabi takeover of a mid-table English club in 2008 has now morphed into a global business and earlier this month the CFG announced a partnership, which will see software giants SAP become their technology partner. SAP’s expertise is set to revolutionise player analysis across the four members of the group with their systems providing huge benefits for youth development.

That is music to the ears of the club’s former Academy Director Brian Marwood – now the CFG’s Managing Director of Football Services – who spoke to Sport360 about City’s wider approach to nurturing young talent and the importance of getting more academy graduates into Pellegrini’s squad.

We have seen UEFA introduce new regulations on homegrown players and also Barcelona suffer a transfer ban for breaking rules when recruiting players from other parts of the world. Does this place an extra onus on a club like Manchester City to develop their own young players?

I think football has become a global game. We have players in our academy who are from Manchester, we also have players from Spain, Austria, Norway and from all parts of the world. The important thing is talent, what is their ability like and could they play for Manchester City’s first team?

And I think over the next five years we will see more homegrown players within the first-team squad. I believe we have the right level now. We have a young player for example, Jason Denayer, who played at Celtic last year. He was the Young Player of the Year in Scotland and also made his debut for the Belgium national team.

He is a very promising and highly-rated young defender and there is every chance he will be in our first-team squad this year. So I believe more and more players will come through our system.

Players have started to go on loan from Man City to New York, is it a strategy to use New York City FC and the clubs in Australia and Japan to develop players?

There is a lot of debate here in England on this topic as in other countries you see clubshave ‘B teams’. Barcelona have a B team which plays at a level something like the English Championship and in Portugal and Germany you can also field teams in men’s football at a very early age.

Our boys play under-21 football and it’s not providing the platform for bridging that gap between being an 18-year-old and being a first-team player for Manchester City.

What we have to do is find a pathway and we believe that New York can help. If you look at the last eight teams in the Champions League this year then over 80 per cent of the players involved were playing men’s football at the age of 18. That’s an amazing statistic.

We don’t have that environment in England, and it is very difficult because the rules do not allow us to have a B team in the lower divisions. We have to try and create opportunities for the players.

Patrick Vieira has been coaching the Under-21s and has been a key part of your youth setup. He has been linked with a number of managerial jobs lately, is there a concern he could be tempted away soon?

I think there’s always that concern when you have someone as highly-talented as him working with you. Ultimately one day he will want to be a manager and that is his ambition. We have played a part in helping him begin that career and make the transition (from being a player).

It is interesting that when he finished playing, coaching was not high on his agenda, I think he wanted to be a football director so he had a year’s experience within the business here. As a player you simply live the life of a player so I think it was important for him to understand what the broader aspects of a football club are and how important the different areas are, whether it is marketing, commercial or media and so on. I think the more he learnt, the more he developed a passion for coaching.

He is two years a coach now and has done a fantastic job with our under-21s. We are very proud of what he has achieved and I’ve no doubt, one day he will become a top manager.

What is Manchester City’s wider philosophy when it comes to developing young players?

I think that is something that has changed in the seven years since the owners came in.

At first we obviously wanted a team that was very competitive in the Premier League and Champions League, but it was also very important to them that we develop the academy in a way to produce players who could play in a Champions League team.

We did a research project that took us around the world with key learnings from all sorts of industries. We came back with 38 recommendations that were backed by the board and we now believe we have a very comprehensive way of developing young players from the age of eight here.

We put them into a school at 12 and give them private education. That allows us to help them develop behaviours and values, which we feel are crucial to them becoming top players and good people.

It also helps us control the time we have them. In the past they might have come in two or three times a week but now we have them every day.

So they go to school in the morning and then we take them through their football programme in the afternoon and in the late afternoon they go back to education in the classrooms here at the City Football Academy – we get more quality time with them.

We believe that allows us to give them the methodology of the way we want to play here, what we believe is ‘our way’ and we can also work on various aspects of their fitness and psychology.

We are now looking to take that to Australia, the US and Japan and use the things we have found here that work and create players for the future. It is really important to us and you can see that with the investment in facilities.

I have been in football for nearly 40 years and I think this is relatively unique. It is something that is close to our heart.

You talk about doing things your own way. What is the City way?

We have a very clear methodology in how we want our youth teams to play. And we want our coaches to be able to follow it so we developed a theme and consistency to what we do.

So if you go to Melbourne you would see something very similar to what you see on the pitches here at the City academy. That will be the same in New York as we develop our academy there.

That philosophy has to keep evolving and changing though as the game always changes and we are well placed to stay ahead of the curve.

How important is it that young players spend time with the first team?

It is very important and we will see a lot of the young players go on pre-season tour with the first team to Melbourne. A lot of players will train with them and it is important they get that exposure.

Interestingly, one thing we do is that our under-18s train regularly with the women’s team and we have just had five players come back from a successful Women’s World Cup campaign in Canada. So I think we are always trying to test players and challenge them. 

 

https://sport360.com/article/english-premier-league/39835/day-brian-marwood-building-bright-future-city-football-group

[M13]

Josep Gombau linked to New York City FC coaching staff - was previously on Yokohama shortlist - CFG watching A League closely it seems!

This is either a JVS is no good, let's poach the best A League coaching talent - OR they think JVS is OK but taking him to a sister club will just send the message we are last in the pecking order. 

Probably the 1st option.

The New York bloggers say that it´s a hoax..

“Not as a head coach, not as an assistant, not as a youth coach,” a source tells EoS. “He is unequivocally, not in any way, shape or form joining New York City FC in any capacity.”

[Info@VW]

His starting up his own academy.

[Tesla]

His starting up his own academy.

I can't see that being true, doesn't make much sense. It must be affiliated with NYCFC in some capacity.

He wouldn't even get a visa if he isn't working for someone. It would be pretty easy with an employer sponsoring him, there would be some sort of special skills visa that fould easily be argued for in his case. But when it comes to going there to start a business, I think it's like $5m you need to be investing in a business if you want to get a visa on those grounds and while it's not unlikely Gombau may have that sort of money, I doubt he has it in liquid assets he is willing to risk.

Someone else must be behind this, and NYCFC makes the most sense.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Tesla

[Thrillhouse]

Doesn't really fit anywhere but he's an itinerary for when city were here, would of been handy to have before they left but still thought people might want to see it

[Murfy1]

Games to stream live for Melbourne City football fans

 

Jul 26 2015

By John Stensholt

 

A-League club Melbourne City will stream real time data and statistics from GPS tracking devices to fans during matches in the upcoming 2015-16 season.

The club, which has entered into a sponsorship and technology partnership with global IT firm SAP, will transmit the information directly to the scoreboard video screen at home matches and make the data available on social media apps and its website.

The tracking devices, prevalent across contact sports such as the AFL, have until recently been banned by world governing body FIFA in football during official competition matches.

But after FIFA recently lifted the ban, the A-League was quick to give its teams permission to use the devices – which track speed, movement and fatigue levels of players – during matches, meaning Melbourne City will become one of the first professional teams in the world to use GPS tracking in competition.

Melbourne City, majority owned by English Premier League giant Manchester City, will take the statistics and information gleaned from the tracking devices and show them to fans during the match.

"We can have actually live stats from the game scrolling [along the scoreboard]," Melbourne City chief executive Scott Munn said. "The fans can see the workrate, efficiency of passing and so on. We will be able to see that live during the game. When we show the players on the screens we can show their stats, when there are substitutes we can show the stats of the players coming on."

Munn said the information and statistics from completed games would then be available on the Melbourne City website and apps directly after matches. "This does not exist at the moment in our marketplace."

Chris Burton, SAP's senior vice-president of global sponsorships, said the City Football Group, which includes the Manchester and Melbourne teams, New York City FC and 20 per cent of Japanese team Yokohama, started talking to SAP 18 months ago about a deal

He said the deal would include cloud software services across CFG teams around the world, as well as working on fan engagement technology with City's estimated 400 million fans around the world.

"What they are doing to enhance the performance of their players around the world is really interesting and I think we are going to co-innovate together. So if we roll up our sleeves up together and look at the way of how to get closer to the fans its going to lead to monetising opportunity for the City Football Group, and SAP wants to be part of that."

CFG has also established a research and innovation group across its four teams, including input from SAP, to examine the data it collects in both playing, player scouting – CFG has 42 scouts maintaining a database containing information on 30,000 players – and fan engagement terms.

"We collate a huge [range] of data in medical sports science, tracking and monitoring," CFG director of football services, Brian Marwood said. "Every club is looking for that small percentage to make them ahead of everyone else, so we're looking at what future trends could look like.

 

http://www.afr.com/business/sport/games-to-stream-live-for-melbourne-city-football-fans-20150725-giit15

[n i k o]

Can't wait to see Korens work rate and fatigue levels

[haz]

Robert Koren Distance Run: 2.53 Metres

[jw1739]

36 scouts have become 42 scouts.

Munn is starting to appear in the media again.

Putting candles on the cake doesn't make the cake taste any better.

Edited July 26, 2015 by jw1739

[Heart of Melbourne]

Koren to tear his calf one week before season opener to teach CFG a lesson.

[belaguttman]

Koren to tear his calf one week before season opener to teach CFG a lesson.

What sort of lesson? Do you think that it would noticeably affect his on field performance?

[Heart of Melbourne]

What sort of lesson? Do you think that it would noticeably affect his on field performance?

what I'm saying that he's a waste of a marquee. CFG have got this massively wrong and is costing us on field success.