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    City Football Group

    In the future there will be no football. Only City Football Group. There will be no Uniteds, Rovers, Rangers or Tigers. Only City. There will be no red, yellow, white, black or old gold. Only blue. There will be no individual history, tradition, memories or players. Only Brian Marwood. The enemy won't be anyone other than Red Bull. The future is City Football Group.

    #2
    City Football Group

    Woah.

    This shit is even more serious than Man Utd objecting to Coca Cola adverts. It's kind of like that, plus Vincent Tan, plus Allam rolled into one.

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      #3
      City Football Group

      Good thing, too. What this sport needs is the iron fist of wealthy paymasters to buy only the best, consign the mere serfs of the game to oblivion and make the football world pure for the footballing connoisseur who thinks Tranmere Rovers are a Gaelic music band.

      About time if you ask me.

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        #4
        City Football Group

        I can't find it on the search but I wrote something on here a the time of City 'investing' in Hyde about their footballing imperialism. Didn't realise they'd take it global.

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          #5
          City Football Group

          Ah, here it is:

          Has the Hyde fiasco been covered on OTF? You'd fucking hope so, wouldn't you? If not, then the story boils down to city chucking Hyde a (small) barrow-load of money to kind of sponsor them. The Elite squad get to play at Ewan Fields, Hyde drop the 'United' from their name, and Ewan Fields gets a brand new blue paint-job. Plus city's badge is placed very visibly inside the ground.

          city are literally photoshopping history here. When the news first broke, they deleted the word 'United' from the Ewan Fields main stand. Very obviously and very shoddily photoshopped it. All good fun, all very funny, and all in line with their Welcome To Manchester poster. But you have to wonder how far this localised imperialism will go. Will Cook stop short of sponsoring every Greater Manchester team, getting them all to play in blue, and not just drop their own suffix, but take up the city one? Wigan city. Bolton city. Stockport city. Altrincham city.

          In a way it's cute. Only in one way, mind. Manchester United long since stopped even pretending to give a fuck about the community they are supposed to serve. But city are hell bent on not encouraging and coaxing local support, but forcing the issue, through the use of Gary Cook's jack-boot wearing, ham-fisted, marketing secret police. I fear the rewriting of history won't stop until Grandfathers regale Grandchildren with tales of city's victorious 1992 Youth team, leading to an era of unequalled success.

          Of course, one should also worry about Hyde in all this. They've been gobbled up here. Assimilated by a large planet eating robot. But they get to survive. And man's will to survive tends to burns brighter and more fiercely than his will for independence and autonomy. They get to play on. And they get to pretend they've chosen to revert to their original name, and their original colours, and this was all their idea. But was it fuck. You think city would have got involved with a team playing in read going under the United sobriquet?

          I've grown accustomed to the very strange idea of city winning something. You throw the sort of funding at a 'project' as they have, and it'll eventually spawn something worthwhile. But what hurts is that Manchester is now home to possibly the two most hateful clubs in the country (jostling and jousting with London here). Scant consolation that Manchester Untied go quietly about their cuntishness, while city proclaim it from the rooftops.

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            #6
            City Football Group

            I was just thinking it's a surprise that Hyde haven't had their kit changed yet. Maybe from their PoV a club "at that level" isn't worth the "fuss" it was cause them in terms of "local PR issues".

            So City now own clubs in England, USA, Australia and, coming soon, Japan.

            Red Bull now has RB Leipzig, Red Bull New York, Red Bull Salzburg, Red Bull Brasil and Red Bull Ghana unless I've missed somewhere.

            Tan (Cardiff, Sarajevo) and Pozzo (Udinese, Granada, Watford) are also owners of clubs in multiple countries too.

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              #7
              City Football Group

              kevinho wrote: I was just thinking it's a surprise that Hyde haven't had their kit changed yet. Maybe from their PoV a club "at that level" isn't worth the "fuss" it was cause them in terms of "local PR issues".
              Hyde did change their kit. When City bailed them out they changed to white shirts and navy shorts (from red shirts and white shorts) as well as changing their name from United.

              They claimed this was due to the 120th anniversary of the founding of Hyde FC, the predecessor to United who played prior to the first world war and they only persisted with white shirts for one year before reverting to a (safely distinct from United) red shirts and navy shorts.

              But Hyde aren't part of City Group - they just mortgaged their identity for a bail out.

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                #8
                City Football Group

                Right-o. Shit.

                So presumably part of the problem that you face as a massive corporation in charge of a football club is that there are simply too many talented footballers around. Sure, you can buy up some of the best talent from your immediate divisional rivals but when you start to gazump their transfers you can end up inadvertently buying 50 international first team players. Then what the hell do you do with them all?

                Well obviously you can loan them to a lower placed team. Spread them thin, so they can do damage to other teams in the league without embarrassing you. But they're still on your club's books and ultimately you've got to find them a place or sell someone on. Which is a bit risky.

                But if you owned another club, somewhere else - a group of clubs even - then you can start buying players left, right and centre and spread them throughout your group. So, once you have four top flight teams in your group, you can probably accommodate 100 international players. Dzeko not happy about being left out? Send him to New York! And that promising youngster can learn his trade in Melbourne!

                And that's before you get on to milking the fans across the world to monetize your brand.

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                  #9
                  City Football Group

                  This is all before we get on to their altruistic redevelopment of large swathes of East Central Manchester. The council have got fuck all money so are piggybacking on City's wealth, allowing them to easily redevelop one of the most neglected parts of the city. But what we're left with, after all the compulsory purchase orders, and moved businesses, and cancelled schemes, is that Manchester City are the largest private commercial landlords in Manchester. Which comes in handy for circumventing FFP rules. Not so altruistic after all.

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                    #10
                    City Football Group

                    You will always find me on the side of underdogs like Manchester United, fighting the good fight.

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                      #11
                      City Football Group

                      Congratulations for being the first person to bring Manchester United in to this.

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                        #12
                        City Football Group

                        Hey, I did that in post two!

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                          #13
                          City Football Group

                          I also did it. But context is vital.

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                            #14
                            City Football Group

                            What about this cracking line from the first article?

                            But fans of the red and white stripes worn by Heart in its previous four seasons should not fear — that strip will now become Melbourne City’s away kit.
                            I guess all you can say in mitigation is that Heart were only formed in 2009 - those four seasons are the only seasons they have been around for - so it's not generations of tradition that have been ripped apart with the renaming and rebranding, as in Cardiff's case.

                            I doubt that such issues will prevent them from trying this with a more established club somewhere else though.

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                              #15
                              City Football Group

                              City Football Group is a strange thing. In one way, it was the blue knight that rescued us from United Football Group. In that same way, as soon as it rescued us from that padded cell it chained us to a piping hot radiator and started throwing coins at us.

                              City Football Group (America) team is meant to really appeal to a target audience of probably me. They will be my local team. They have Claudio Reyna. They will undoubtedly play City Football Group (England) frequently in preseason friendlies.

                              Yet I really could not care less. Football at Yankee Stadium is somehow more frightful an idea to me than Baseball at Yankee Stadium. The whole thing feels wrong - even Beckham Sports (Miami) seems to feel like a more reasonable idea, given that (a) Miami could do with a team (b) there isn't already a team (c) they aren't throwing money into stopping the Cosmos.

                              I can only imagine City Football Group (Australia) is trying the same thing. The most bizarre part is that both the Australian and America arms of the same hydra are trying to sign Frank Lampard. I guess the money will be the same, at which point it comes down to whether Frank wants a diet of barbecue or hot dogs. I expect he will mull that one over for a long time.

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                                #16
                                City Football Group

                                kevinho wrote: if you owned another club, somewhere else - a group of clubs even - then you can start buying players left, right and centre and spread them throughout your group. So, once you have four top flight teams in your group, you can probably accommodate 100 international players. Dzeko not happy about being left out? Send him to New York!
                                Not sure quite how Manchester City Women fit in with this.

                                Erics Inner Monologue wrote: comes in handy for circumventing FFP rules
                                Ah, that is it. Man City Women are comfortably the richest Women's club in the World. Able to pay a seven, possibly eight figure sum for the simple pleasure of calling themselves by the hallowed name.

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                                  #17
                                  City Football Group

                                  kevinho wrote:
                                  I doubt that such issues will prevent them from trying this with a more established club somewhere else though.
                                  Rebrand Rangers as Glasgow City*?

                                  * Yes, I know there's already a Glasgow City FC, but it didn't stop them in Melbourne, did it?

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                                    #18
                                    City Football Group

                                    Erics Inner Monologue wrote: Congratulations for being the first person to bring Manchester United in to this.
                                    Bit of an open goal, isn't it?

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                                      #19
                                      City Football Group

                                      Glasgow City is a women's club, right?

                                      Ultimately, Red Bulls are going to be the more "authentic" working-man's club in New York, which is kind of weird.

                                      Melbourne Heart was a dumb name, to be fair.

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                                        #20
                                        City Football Group

                                        .

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                                          #21
                                          City Football Group

                                          Que?

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                                            #22
                                            City Football Group

                                            Reed John wrote: Melbourne Heart was a dumb name, to be fair.
                                            I quite fancy the idea of a whole league of names made up of clichés from football commentary and/or The apprentice.

                                            Melbourne Heart versus Sydney Passion
                                            Manly Mojo versus Geelong Giving One Hundred Percent
                                            Adelaide Team of Destiny versus Dubbo Magic Beans

                                            Although the team in Cairns should be called the Reefers.

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                                              #23
                                              City Football Group

                                              a verda wrote:
                                              Originally posted by Reed John
                                              Melbourne Heart was a dumb name, to be fair.
                                              I quite fancy the idea of a whole league of names made up of clichés from football commentary and/or The apprentice.

                                              Melbourne Heart versus Sydney Passion
                                              Manly Mojo versus Geelong Giving One Hundred Percent
                                              Adelaide Team of Destiny versus Dubbo Magic Beans

                                              Although the team in Cairns should be called the Reefers.
                                              Absolute Blooters FC

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                                                #24
                                                City Football Group

                                                Pat McGatt wrote:
                                                Originally posted by Erics Inner Monologue
                                                Congratulations for being the first person to bring Manchester United in to this.
                                                Bit of an open goal, isn't it?
                                                It's pretty lazy.

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                                                  #25
                                                  City Football Group

                                                  Our chairman must be seething about all this random throwing around of the City moniker. SEETHING.

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