City Football Group – All you need to know

What started out as a single club project with the takeover of Manchester City in September 2008 has now revolutionised the club into a state-of-the-art football infrastructure.

City Football Group are the owners of Manchester City and 13 football clubs in total across the world in different ownership structures. The group’s reach expands across the globe with clubs in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and even in Australasia.

So many footballing clubs under a single portfolio enable the City Football Group with several benefits – development and nurturing of sporting and administrative talent, cost benefits due to the scale of operations and thereby financial advantages.

We at Essential Football take a look at how the City Football Group has grown in stature year by year. Manchester City’s dominance on the English and European fronts in the past decade is a testament to the successful growth of the Abu Dhabi-backed group.

Manchester City’s dominance

Since Sheikh Mansour took over ownership of the club they have won 8 PL titles, 7 League Cups, 3 FA Cups plus 3 Community Shields as well as perhaps most importantly the 2023/24 Champions League.

The Champions League triumph came as part of the treble winning campaign under Pep Guardiola where they secured the much coveted European top dog’s title ending their long pursuit of the crown.

Here is a list of the other clubs under the City Football Group umbrella:

Girona FC

The La Liga club the group in 2017 and has grown tremendously ever since, even achieving qualification to the UEFA Champions League. Only 4 seasons ago, they were playing in the Spanish second division, a reminder of how organisation and structure, complemented with money, can transform a club.

Girona, which belongs to the Catalonia region in Spain, are in close proximity to FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol.

Lommel SK

The club are based in the city of Lommel, Belgium. The club joined the City Football Group in 2020.

Estac Troyes

Estac Troyes play in the French Ligue 2 and have been a part of the victorious City Group since 2020.

Palermo

The Italian side are currently playing in the Serie B. The club was founded in 1900 and has been a part of the CFG since 2022.

New York City FC

New York City FC was created by the City Football Group in 2013 and are the second club in their enormous footballing empire. The club is vastly popular in the Major League Soccer, with several high-profile European players joining the club, like Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo.

Montevideo City Torque

Based in Montevideo, Uruguay, the team became the fifth member of the group when it joined in 2017.

Bahia

Bahia are from the South American country of Brazil. The club was founded in 1931 and joined the CFG in 2023.

Club Bolívar (Partner)

The club is based in La Paz, Bolivia and was founded in 1925. It has been part of the well-renowned CFG since 2021. They were the first-ever partner club in CFG.

Melbourne City FC

The club was taken over by CFG in 2014 and have an excellent youth set up apart from massive sporting success. They are one of the best teams in Australia, on and off the pitch.

Yokohama F. Marinos

The Japanese club was founded in 1972 and joined forces with the CFG in 2014.

Shenzhen Peng City FC

Seventh club to join the CFG empire in 2019. The club was created in 2017.

Mumbai City FC

Eighth club to join the illustrious CFG. Mumbai City FC play in the Indian Super League and have won it twice.

City Football Group Future

The future continues to look very bright for the team as they continue to dominate their Manchester rivalry with neighbours United.

Sheik Mansour has done much for the club developing it into a global brand and footballing powerhouse setting the standard for multi-club ownership around the world.

With the club assembling a younger, fresher squad for serial winning manager Pep Guardiola ahead of the 2025/25 season, we can expect to see trophies returning to the Etihad in the very near future.