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Manchester City Owner Adds Chinese Team to Growing Soccer Empire

Manchester City Owner Adds Chinese Team to Growing Soccer Empire

(Bloomberg) -- A group led by the owner of English Premier League soccer champions Manchester City FC has acquired a Chinese third-division team.

City Football Group, along with partner UBTECH -- a Shenzhen-based robotics firm -- and sports investment fund China Sports Capital bought Sichuan Jiuniu FC, according to a statement Wednesday. It didn’t disclose a value for the deal.

The Chinese team, which plays in a 27,000-seat stadium, becomes the seventh club under the ownership of City Football Group, founded by United Arab Emirates’ Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan.

In 2017, it added Catalonia-based Girona FC to a list that already included Major League Soccer team New York City FC and Australia’s Melbourne City Football Club.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Easton in London at jeaston7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Beth Mellor at bmellor@bloomberg.net, Niveditha Ravi, Rakteem Katakey

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