Man City owners primed for key next move amid Red Bull competition after Jurgen Klopp appointment

Manchester City owners City Football Group are eyeing the purchase of another European team to add to their growing portfolio of clubs.

According to reports in Dutch media outlet De Gelderlander, CFG are priming themselves to compete with another multi-club powerhouse, Red Bull, the owners of RB Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg, New York Red Bulls and others, for a controlling interest in beleagured Dutch second-tier side Vitesse Arnhem. Red Bull recently appointed former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp to a role within its network

Vitesse were relegated from the Eredivise into the Eerste Divisie last season having been deducted 18 points by the Dutch FA, the KNVB, for breaching licensing regulations.

Vitesse, which had an unofficial link with Chelsea for a number of years that saw players such as Mason Mount and Armando Broja spend loan spells with the club, had a brush with bankruptcy during the summer before managing to carry on, but they remain on the hunt for a new owner, and CFG are understood to see potential in a deal.

Prior to their financial difficulties and subsequent relegation, Vitesse had been regulars in UEFA competition for a decade, competing across five Europa League campaigns between 2012 and 2019, most recently competing in the Europa Conference League in 2021/22.

Having purchased City back in 2008, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan gave the green light for CFG to be founded back in 2013, an idea for a sprawling multi-club network driven by Ferran Soriano, City’s chief executive.

Over the last 11 years, CFG have added a multitude of football clubs to their stable, acquiring stakes in Melbourne City, Mumbai City, Montevideo City Torque, New York City, Troyes, Lommel, Girona, Shenzhen Peng City, Yokohama F. Marinos, Palermo, and Bahia, among others. They have yet to add a Dutch club to their ranks.

With City sitting at the summit of the pyramid, the CFG model aims to enhance the global brand and reach of City and the portfolio of clubs through having more touch points globally, as well as trying to align the brand through colours and logos, as well as sponsorship deals with the likes of Etihad Airways, where they can.

It also allows for collaboration between clubs and is seen as a tool to aid player recruitment and development by having a footprint in key markets across the world.

The multi-club model hasn’t always been universally popular, however, with some supporters of clubs that form part of such a group believing it threatens to dilute identity and tradition.