Manchester City buy stake in Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos

Premier League success isn’t enough for the owners of Manchester City.

On Tuesday it was revealed that their Abu Dhabi based owners have added to their growing portfolio of clubs by investing in Yokohama F Marinos from the Japanese top-flight.

Europe, Australasia, North America and now Asia all have a soccer club owner by Man City. Next stop, global domination.
Man City’s parent company, City Financial Group (CFG), already own Australian club Melbourne Heart and their new Major League Soccer franchise, New York City FC, will begin play in 2015. City announced their partnership with Yokohama and that they have bought a minority stake in the three-time J-League champions from the Nissan motor company.

In a release on their website City state that Yokohama would benefit from their “training methods, medical care, sport science, team management and coaching know-how.”

The CEO of CFG, Ferran Soriano, is delighted to welcome Yokohama to the family of clubs City now own and had the following to say.

“We’re thrilled to be able to play a role in investing and building on the on-going success of YF Marinos,” Soriano said. “We are proud to offer a collaborative and integrated approach to the football, marketing, media and commercial development of all the clubs in the City family. At the same time, we are proud that each of our clubs is firmly rooted and invested in its local community as well as connected and engaged with its supporter base. We are very much looking forward to starting our collaboration.”

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