By Paul Nicholson
March 3 – City Football Group (CFG), owners of English Premier League club Manchester City, have taken their next steps in Japan with the opening of a Tokyo office for its City Football Japan subsidiary.
CFG acquired a minority stake (believed to be 20%) and formed a partnership with the Nissan-owned Yokohama F Marinos, one of Japan’s leading sides, last May. The deal represented the first significant foreign investment in a J-League soccer club and the announcement at the time said YF Marinos would benefit from CFG’s experience in Manchester City.
The new CFG Tokyo office will oversee the group’s commercial operations in Japan and work closely with the Yokohama F·Marinos.
Last week Premier League leaders Chelsea have signed a 5-year £200 million shirt sponsorship deal with Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama, one of the largest club sponorships in European football and second only in the Premier League to Manchester United’s seven year £370 million Chevrolet sponsorship. Yokohama replace Korea’s Samsung for the 2015/16 season.
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck emphasised the global reach of the Yokohama deal as well as saying that the club would, with Yokohama, be more active in the Japanese market. “We believe that Yokohama will play a key role in helping us drive our global expansion in international markets such as the US, where they have operated with distinction for many years. Also, of course, Chelsea having such an esteemed and historic Japanese company as our partner enables us to accelerate our development in their home market too,” said Buck.
CFG’s new full time presence in-country with Takao Toshishige as Managing Director of CFJ takes the battle for Japan to a different level. Toshishige was previously a senior director at Rakuten Inc. and served also as a director at Crimson Football Club Inc. He will be looking for commercial opportunities for all of CFG’s club properties (Man City, MLS franchise New York City FC and Australian A league side Melbourne City), as well as managing the Yokohama F·Marinos relationship.
Ferran Soriano, chief executive of City Football Group, said: “We are growing and developing a long-term presence in Japan. Now we have a permanent home and in Toshishige-San, we have the perfect individual to lead our operations.
“Creating City Football Japan will give us an opportunity to strengthen further our relationships with Nissan and with our colleagues at Yokohama F· Marinos, and help to support and develop Japanese football. It will also allow us to pursue greater commercial opportunities in Japan.”
CFG have a different approach and have pursued a broader based international strategy than other clubs as they have expanded outside their domestic markets. Toshishige said: “Creating City Football Japan is a huge opportunity to showcase City Football’s unique proposition in global football. We are confident that we can work closely with Japanese businesses which want to reach both domestic and international audiences to promote their brands.”
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