Man City owner buys Chengdu club

Manchester City’s parent company on Wednesday announced a landmark investment in Chinese soccer with the purchase of thirdtier club Sichuan Jiuniu.

City Football Group has acquired the Chengdu-based team in a joint deal with UBTECH, an artificial intelligence and robotics company, and China Sports Capital.

Jiuniu plays its home games at the 27,000-capacity Chengdu Longquanyi Football Stadium and will kick off its new season in March. The club was formed by the 2017 Sichuan National Games Under-20 team.

Last year, Jiuniu became the first third-tier club to reach the quarterfinals of the Chinese FA Cup.

It is now the seventh soccer club in CFG’s portfolio, along with English Premier League giant Manchester City, Major League Soccer’s New York City FC, Melbourne City of Australia’s A-League, Yokohama F Marinos of Japan, Girona of Spain’s La Liga and Club Atletico Torque of Uruguay.

CFG also owns other soccer-related businesses around the world, including academies and technical support and marketing companies.

CFG’s presence in China includes offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen, several commercial partnerships, community initiatives and a soccer coaching program in conjunction with the Ministry of Education.

“China is an extremely important football market,” said CFG’s CEO, Ferran Soriano.

“We are making a long-term, sustainable commitment to grow and develop Sichuan Jiuniu FC and to nurture Chinese footballing talent. These objectives are equally important.”

CFG said it plans to work with other shareholders to strengthen Jiuniu’s performance on the pitch, forge a good relationship with fans and build a strong presence in the community.

“We believe AI technology will promote the development of the football industry to a new level and we will focus on developing Jiuniu to be a century-old club,” said Zhou Jian, CEO of UBTECH, which has been a partner of Manchester City since 2016.

China Sports Capital was jointly founded by the China Media Capital (CMC) consortium and Sequoia China. CMC became a minority shareholder of City Football Group in December 2015.

In market terms, soccer has been booming in China since the rollout of a 2015 reform plan.

The country’s premier club competition, the Chinese Super League, has attracted a plethora of big-name stars from Europe and South America.