July 15 – City Football Group (CFG), owners of Manchester City, look to have upped their quest to take a stake in French club.
The Abu Dhabi football investment company, which owns or has stakes in nine clubs worldwide, has reportedly been in conversation with Ligue 2 Troyes AC.
Initially CFG had been in talks with AS Nancy in a deal reported to be worth €14 million. That deal appears to have cooled with CFG switching attention to Troyes who ae valued at a more modest €7-10 million.
Reports in France say that Troyes president Daniel Masoni has been approached and is open to a sale.
Troyes were relegated from Ligue 1 in 2017-18 but have pushed hard for promotion back to the top flight in each of the last two seasons finishing in the top four.
In May CFG completed the acquisition of their ninth club, taking a majority stake in Belgium’s Lommel SK, who currently compete in Belgium’s second tier.
At the time Lommel looked to be on the verge of collapse, having been denied a club license. CFG completed their deal with Lommel two days after the license was granted to play in the eight-team second tier.
CFG said that the attraction of Lommel was is reputation for having “a strong Academy and focus on youth development”.
If the Troyes deal is completed the French club will sit in the CFG portfolio alongside Manchester City, New York City FC in the US, Melbourne City FC in Australia, Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Montevideo City Torque in Uruguay, Girona FC in Spain, Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China and Mumbai City FC in India, and Belgium’s Lommel SK.
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