With Girona FC currently leading the La Liga 2023/24 campaign, fans are curious about its owner, the City Football Group, and its influence
Girona FC currently leads the LaLiga table following 11 wins out of their opening 13 games and 34 points.
Who is the owner of La Liga club Girona FC and is the club owned by Man City
Sheikh Mansour is the owner of the teams leading in both the Premier League and La Liga right now. 🤯
Man City and Girona. City Football Group. 📈 pic.twitter.com/dzGPzIEich
— Troll Football (parody) (@Troll_Fotballl) November 7, 2023
Girona are top of La Liga, its a #MCFC "B" team you are watching, not a great story like Leichester City, its a story of expansionism.
Girona are owned by Manchester City Football Group (CFG) network.
Girona is a Starbucks. Football will soon look like corporate strip malls. pic.twitter.com/BGu9L9xT0P
— FootballCommentator (@CommentatorFC) November 10, 2023
With eyes on Girona, let’s have a look at their owners the City Football Group, and their flagship club, Manchester City who also own a 47% stake in Girona FC.
City Football Group
The City Football Group (CFG) is currently the world’s leading private owner and operator of several football clubs worldwide. The group was founded back in 2013 and its most notable clubs aside from Manchester City, include New York City FC, Melbourne FC, Yokohoma F. Marinos, Mumbai City, Palermo, and Girona. Notably, the group owns these clubs or partialy has s stake in their ownership.
Back in August 2017, the CFG acquired a 44.3% (now 47%) stake in Girona. They own the club alongside the Girona Football Group who own a 44.3% stake. Interestingly, this group is led by City boss Pep Guardiola’s brother, Pere. Owing to the shared ownership between Manchester City and Girona, several young players have been from the Premier League champions to the La Liga over the past few years.
Manchester City and Girona in European competitions
Since both clubs have the same ownership, there is the question of whether they can face off against one another in European competitions. Interestingly, the answer is yes, despite the shared ownership, but they would still need UEFA’s approval. For example, both Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg and Germany’s Red Bull Leipzig share common ownership.
With both sides competing in this season’s UEFA Champions League, the same questions arose. However, Red Bull argued that they are primarily based in Salzburg while in Leipzig, they only act as a sponsor. As such, if the same thing were to happen to Manchester City and Girona, the CFG would likely get the permission based on similar reasons.
Manchester City’s role in Girona success
Girona are currently having one of their best starts of the season by topping the LaLiga table against Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, and Real Madrid. They have so far gathered 34 points out of a possible 39. While they enjoy this success, they also owe their success to their connections with Manchester City and Pep Guardiola. Girona are well known for playing with a very high press and often encourage a short, fast passing game. Often times, this style of play also includes quick reactions and great footwork from the goalkeeper. All these factors align with what Pep promotes with his players, particularly Ederson at Manchester City. While speaking about Girona, Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano once stated:
What we hope is that the fans understand that it will have City inside.”
Unsurprisingly, the City Football Group-owned Girona do indeed have a sizeable amount of Manchester City’s influence on their success and will most likely continue to adopt their philosophy in the foreseeable future. Moreover, they also have access to a vast scouting network with a much higher level of analytics as compared to other clubs that are of a similar size or background to them.
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