September 21 – Manchester City owner City Football Group (CFG), has opened a second office in China, in Shenzen.
CFG is 13% owned by a China Media Capital-led consortium, and was the first non-Chinese club owner to open a mainland office, in Shanghai in March 2016. The Shenzen office will deliver grassroots development programming as well as commercial sales and fan-building initiatives.
Shenzhen is the home to a number of Man City partners including robotics partner, UBTECH.
Damian Willoughby, SVP of Partnerships at City Football Group, said: “Shenzhen is an important and growing city at the heart of the Greater Bay Area. Our presence in the region will play an important role in our continued growth as we engage our fans, expand our grassroots football programmes and work with our expanding portfolio of commercial partners.”
The club says the main focus of the Shenzen office will be the development of grassroots football, continuing the partnership with the Ministry of Education on its School Football Project that began in September 2016.
“In the past two years, over 40 coaches from UK have worked in primary and secondary schools across 15 Chinese cities/provinces, and directly delivered football coaching sessions to over 400,000 Chinese kids, and over 3,000 school teachers. City Football Group also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Shenzhen Sports, Culture and Tourism Bureau to work together to deliver grassroots football programmes in Shenzhen,” said a club press release.
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