Rangers sign deal with Bengaluru FC
: Between Friday night and Saturday morning, one Indian Super League (ISL) club got hitched to a top Scottish club and news broke from England of another tying up with Manchester City.
ISL champions Bengaluru FC announced a two-year tie-up with Rangers FC late on Friday following a media conference in Glasgow. Hours later, mirror.co.uk reported that Manchester City “are poised to finalise a deal to buy Indian Super League side Mumbai City ahead of new season starting next month (ISL6 kick-off on October 20).” A source in the ISL said it is likely to be made official next month.
The Rangers-Bengaluru FC deal includes scouting opportunities for Rangers, getting their academy team to train at the ISL champions’ training centre, holding soccer schools in Bengaluru, bringing over a team of Rangers Legends and taking BFC to play at Rangers’ stadium in Ibrox, according to a media release.
Similar tie-ups have happened in the past with Dempo inking a deal with Denmark’s FC Midtjylland in 2011. Dempo Group of Companies, it was reported, had even bought 34% stake in the club. In 2016, a Goal.com report quoted Shrinivas Dempo, chairman of Dempo SC, as saying the stake had been sold. In 2008, JCT announced a partnership with Premiership club Wolverhampton Wanderers and two years later, sent five players to train there. Sheffield United partnered Tata Football Academy sending coaches to Jamshedpur and producing a coaching model it used.
Last year, I-League champions Chennai City announced that Swiss giants FC Basel have bought 26% stake in the club. Atletico Madrid too had a stake in ATK for the first three years of the ISL from 2014, helping the Kolkata franchise win two editions by providing Spanish coaching staff and helping find foreign players who formed the spine of the team.
The City-Mumbai City deal too is likely to have the Premiership champions buying a big stake in the club, people familiar with the developments told this paper. It could mean City using its resources to help Mumbai in more ways than Atletico Madrid did to ATK.
The City Football Group (CFG) has teams in USA’s Major League Soccer, Australia’s A-League, China and Uruguay. CFG also have a stake in Spain’s Girona and Japan’s Yokohama Marino’s. City CEO Ferran Sorriano visited India in Jan 2018 during the ISL.
“We have some interest in some markets and countries where there is a genuine football passion and opportunities like India,” said Soriano, according to the report. PTI though quoted an Mumbai City official as saying that the report of City buying a stake in Mumbai is conjecture.