12% of Ciy Football Group is owned by two Chinese companies
China Media Capital and CITIC Capital
CITIC Capital is a Chinese Government company.
China Media Capital is a massive chinese media company headed by Li Ruigang - Rupert Murdoch of China who is also an office bearer of communist party in China.
FSDL definitely should look to add GKFC to the ISL. It'll only be beneficial for KBFC and Kerala Football. Will lead to some ugly rivalry but hell yes.
Long-term deals: Rise in transfer fees is indicative of a shift in the approach of Indian football
In the 2019-20 Indian Super League season, clubs spent 1.4 crore on transfer fees. That number jumped to 9.5 crore in the 2020-21 ISL season. In the midst of the ongoing Indian Premier League auction, these numbers pale in comparison. But the rise in transfer fees is indicative of a shift in the approach of Indian football, and in particular, clubs that are now attempting to create a business model that’s based on the European football market.
Take the case of Mumbai City FC. The club was recently bought by the City Football Group, owners of English Premier League champions Manchester City. In their first transfer season, Mumbai City spent Rs 1.76 crore in acquiring the services of midfielder French-Moroccan midfielder Hugo Boumous from FC Goa. A season later, Boumous was sold off to ATK Mohun Bagan for a reported Rs 2 crore and was said to have signed a contract worth Rs 12.5 crore spread out over five years to stay in Kolkata.
There are two incidents worth of note that have happened over the past two years in this particular transfer. Firstly, instead of the norm of one or two-year contracts, most clubs in India’s top division are now considering tying down players to longer contracts. Earlier Indian clubs would sign a player on a one-year contract and only be in the market for free agent signings.
Secondly, it opened up the idea of player re-sales becoming a veritable income generator for already cash-strapped Indian football clubs. In an ecosystem where there is no incentive to create quality football players and more clubs go under the weight of financial constraints, the idea of these football clubs selling top assets or buying another club’s top assets to keep a healthy flow of cash flowing has been long amiss, but welcome now.
One of the major ways clubs are working in the transfer market now is to sign young players with potential to long-term contracts. Once again, Mumbai City FC have taken a lead in this arena, signing 21-year-old Apuia Ralte from NorthEast United FC for a fee of 2 crore for a period of five years in the 2021-22 season and recently signing winger Lallianzuala Chhangte to a six-month loan that becomes a three-year deal. They paid an undisclosed sum for a player who had only six months remaining in his contract, rather than take the risk of the parent club convincing the player otherwise.
As much as a flow of cash between clubs could be a possible boost to India’s football economy, it has to be built under a bedrock of quality football players – players that have largely evaded the Indian system. In 2020, the All-India Football Federation proposed a new structure that went under the radar.
It involved the concept of training compensation and solidarity payment. Take the case of NorthEast United FC. They invested in the training and game time of Ralte, who then made a big money move to Mumbai City FC. Should Mumbai make further inroads and sell the player for a higher fee, the training compensation and solidarity payment concept would mean that a percentage of Ralte’s future transfer fee would go to NorthEast United FC, who discovered the player and provided training and exposure.
It incentivises a club like NEUFC, who struggle financially among giants like Mumbai in the league, to invest in youth players and good coaches for junior levels and build a different business model in the league – one of a feeder club.
In the 2020-21 season, player sale revenue went from Rs 1.6 crore to Rs 2.6 crore. Incentivising clubs to create quality players not only attempts to improve the level of Indian football – a huge issue that has existed in the country and continues to plague it at an international level – but helps clubs, not just at the league level but also at the state level to build a business.
Why wasn’t the concept of long-term contracts, coupled with a buying and selling system ever the norm? This was because most clubs’ sponsorship deals were structured around a yearly basis and the financial stability of clubs was based purely on their ability to bring these sponsors in.
Many ISL clubs today have diversified their revenue streams. Non fungible token (NFT) partners, gaming partners and various other types of sponsorships are consistently roped in on long-term deals. Instead of working on a year-to-year basis, the idea of creating a business with multiple avenues of revenue is slowly starting to take a hold of the league. While still not enough, it is a start at attempting to solve the problem of running a football club in India.This latest iteration of the average ISL club’s attempt at creating an acceptable business model has come but at some cost. The Delhi Dynamos had to relocate to Odisha, where they were rebranded as Odisha FC and came under the aegis of the Odisha government. Mumbai was a cash-strapped team until the City Football Group showed up. FC Pune City was shut down and Hyderabad FC came along in its place. Both East Bengal FC and Mohun Bagan joined the ISL from I-League but Bagan had to be merged with existing Kolkata ISL club ATK, while East Bengal continues to struggle in their attempts to find a long-term lead sponsor.
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City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations; of which 78% is majority owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), 10% by the American firm Silver Lake and 12% by Chinese firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital.[1][2]
It'll only be beneficial for KBFC and Kerala Football.
Will lead to some ugly rivalry but hell yes.
Long-term deals: Rise in transfer fees is indicative of a shift in the approach of Indian football
In the 2019-20 Indian Super League season, clubs spent 1.4 crore on transfer fees. That number jumped to 9.5 crore in the 2020-21 ISL season. In the midst of the ongoing Indian Premier League auction, these numbers pale in comparison. But the rise in transfer fees is indicative of a shift in the approach of Indian football, and in particular, clubs that are now attempting to create a business model that’s based on the European football market.
Take the case of Mumbai City FC. The club was recently bought by the City Football Group, owners of English Premier League champions Manchester City. In their first transfer season, Mumbai City spent Rs 1.76 crore in acquiring the services of midfielder French-Moroccan midfielder Hugo Boumous from FC Goa. A season later, Boumous was sold off to ATK Mohun Bagan for a reported Rs 2 crore and was said to have signed a contract worth Rs 12.5 crore spread out over five years to stay in Kolkata.
There are two incidents worth of note that have happened over the past two years in this particular transfer. Firstly, instead of the norm of one or two-year contracts, most clubs in India’s top division are now considering tying down players to longer contracts. Earlier Indian clubs would sign a player on a one-year contract and only be in the market for free agent signings.
Secondly, it opened up the idea of player re-sales becoming a veritable income generator for already cash-strapped Indian football clubs. In an ecosystem where there is no incentive to create quality football players and more clubs go under the weight of financial constraints, the idea of these football clubs selling top assets or buying another club’s top assets to keep a healthy flow of cash flowing has been long amiss, but welcome now.
One of the major ways clubs are working in the transfer market now is to sign young players with potential to long-term contracts. Once again, Mumbai City FC have taken a lead in this arena, signing 21-year-old Apuia Ralte from NorthEast United FC for a fee of 2 crore for a period of five years in the 2021-22 season and recently signing winger Lallianzuala Chhangte to a six-month loan that becomes a three-year deal. They paid an undisclosed sum for a player who had only six months remaining in his contract, rather than take the risk of the parent club convincing the player otherwise.
As much as a flow of cash between clubs could be a possible boost to India’s football economy, it has to be built under a bedrock of quality football players – players that have largely evaded the Indian system. In 2020, the All-India Football Federation proposed a new structure that went under the radar.
It involved the concept of training compensation and solidarity payment. Take the case of NorthEast United FC. They invested in the training and game time of Ralte, who then made a big money move to Mumbai City FC. Should Mumbai make further inroads and sell the player for a higher fee, the training compensation and solidarity payment concept would mean that a percentage of Ralte’s future transfer fee would go to NorthEast United FC, who discovered the player and provided training and exposure.
It incentivises a club like NEUFC, who struggle financially among giants like Mumbai in the league, to invest in youth players and good coaches for junior levels and build a different business model in the league – one of a feeder club.
In the 2020-21 season, player sale revenue went from Rs 1.6 crore to Rs 2.6 crore. Incentivising clubs to create quality players not only attempts to improve the level of Indian football – a huge issue that has existed in the country and continues to plague it at an international level – but helps clubs, not just at the league level but also at the state level to build a business.
Why wasn’t the concept of long-term contracts, coupled with a buying and selling system ever the norm? This was because most clubs’ sponsorship deals were structured around a yearly basis and the financial stability of clubs was based purely on their ability to bring these sponsors in.
Many ISL clubs today have diversified their revenue streams. Non fungible token (NFT) partners, gaming partners and various other types of sponsorships are consistently roped in on long-term deals. Instead of working on a year-to-year basis, the idea of creating a business with multiple avenues of revenue is slowly starting to take a hold of the league. While still not enough, it is a start at attempting to solve the problem of running a football club in India.This latest iteration of the average ISL club’s attempt at creating an acceptable business model has come but at some cost. The Delhi Dynamos had to relocate to Odisha, where they were rebranded as Odisha FC and came under the aegis of the Odisha government. Mumbai was a cash-strapped team until the City Football Group showed up. FC Pune City was shut down and Hyderabad FC came along in its place. Both East Bengal FC and Mohun Bagan joined the ISL from I-League but Bagan had to be merged with existing Kolkata ISL club ATK, while East Bengal continues to struggle in their attempts to find a long-term lead sponsor.
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/long-term-deals-rise-in-transfer-fees-is-indicative-of-a-shift-in-the-approach-of-indian-football/2432373/