Manchester City Beat Dortmund to End a Problematic Pre-Season Tour on a High

It’s been a testing pre-season tour for Manchester City. They travelled to China to try to capitalise on commercial opportunities. It’s a huge, untapped football market that no European club has really managed to seize control of.

City want to close the financial gap between themselves and the game’s elite clubs, and they see China as key to that endeavour.

They signed an agreement with China Media Capital (CMC) in December, selling a 13 percent stake in the City Football Group in return for £265 million. The money was inconsequential, more a token gesture than anything more meaningful, with CMC’s expertise and ability to maximise City’s media exposure in the region of far greater value.

They followed that with another partnership, this time with Chinese company Zhong An Holdings, who have helped City broker a deal with China’s Ministry of Education—allowing them to get involved with coaching young players across the country—and guided City in their search for commercial partners and media opportunities.

There’s a clear strategy to make an assault on the Chinese market. There are a billion people in China, and their domestic league is in its fledgling stage.

There’s a thirst among the Chinese people for football that perhaps isn’t being quenched, and City want to step in and take a share of the market.

Their tour, which has taken them to Beijing and Shenzhen, has been a success commercially. They’ve held numerous events engaging with local fans. There has been plenty of media coverage and billboards in the streets.

City’s name has been visible, and that’s guaranteed to have a significant effect.

It’s an understandable policy. Money is crucial in football, and even City—a side self-sustainable and in receipt of the Premier League’s riches—need to maximise their commercial opportunities.

Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona remain someway ahead of City in terms of their value and revenue, and Ferran Soriano, the club’s chief executive, is charged with closing the gap.

However, from a football perspective, it’s been mired in difficulty. Temperatures have consistently nudged 40 degrees, training has lacked the usual intensity, one of the two scheduled games was cancelled due to the poor state of the pitch and the travelling involved is far from ideal ahead of a gruelling campaign that will see City attempt to win four competitions.

City are just 16 days away from their Premier League opener at home to Sunderland, and they have played two warm-up matches. They will now hastily look to arrange an additional friendly when they return to England, but there can be little doubt things haven’t quite gone to plan.

The …

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