Networks, strategy and sport: the case of City Football Group

Abstract

PurposeThis study examines the networks and strategy of Manchester City Football Club and City Football Group, central to the group's emergence as a global entertainment organisation with a network of franchises worldwide.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a case study design to examine both Manchester City Football Club and City Football Group (CFG)'s strategy. Drawing upon an extensive review of documentation pertaining to CFG's strategic vision and approach, a network analysis of the brand's constituent clubs, partners and state- and corporate-investors was conducted, providing a macro-level view of CFG's use of global franchising, media partnerships and commercial agreements to extend CFG and the City brand internationally.FindingsThe study's findings afford a unique insight into CFG's efforts to monetise and globalise through franchising, which provides insights into the convergence in sport of politics, entertainment and business. Namely, how the global strategy enacted by CFG and the Abu Dhabi government (its owner) has leveraged sporting properties successfully. In turn, it extends their geopolitical and economic networks and grows the parent City brand as a global entity.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's findings afford a unique insight into CFG's efforts to monetise and globalise through franchising. Namely, the global strategy enacted by CFG and the Abu Dhabi royal family (its owner) has leveraged sporting properties successfully. In turn, it extends their geopolitical and economic networks and grows the parent City brand as a global entity.Originality/valueThe research represents an important step in examining the strategy of football club ownership and global club networks within sport. In this respect, the present research provides a new way to understand sport in a globalised, digitised and geopoliticised operating environment.

Taking on the world: the internationalisation of City Football Group

“…It thus represents what Yin (1994) describes as an extreme or unique case worthy of in-depth inquiry. Furthermore, as argued by Chadwick et al (2023), CFG’s complexity and contemporaneity mean that it is also relevant to both an academic and practitioner audience.…”

“…But because their impact in this short space of time has been so immense, and because of football’s ubiquity and unparalleled popularity, it is crucial to understand more about how they have come to be so influential in the game, and it is therefore encouraging that we are beginning to see more and more CFG-centred research (e.g. Chadwick et al , 2023; Ginesta and de San Eugenio, 2023), with the present study being very much part of this growing effort. The second important contribution of the paper stems from its timeliness.…”

‘Best run club in the world': Manchester City fans and the legitimation of sportswashing?

“…Sportswashing is a tactic of morally questionable political regimes to distort attention from their ethical violations through leverage of emotional associations and media coverage that come with sport (Fruh et al, 2022). MCFC have been described as a successful sportswashing project ‘in extending its economic reach internationally and normalising the state's investment in football and strategic use of sport to brand Abu Dhabi and the UAE in a positive light’ (Chadwick et al, 2023: 10). However, little scholarly attention has focused on the experiences of the fans as regards their club's ownership by a company heavily related to a morally questionable regime – nor, indeed, has there been much research on the fans of any club owned by regimes similarly accused of sportswashing (with the notable exception of Jones et al, 2023).…”