Americans may take over Manchester City

English Manchester City has told the Stock Exchange that it is negotiating with four different parties, one from the United States, to buy the club in a GBP 70 million takeover.

The name of the person that is heading the American consortium was not released but the syndicate is considered to be one of two serious prospective bidders.

Manchester City could be the latest Premier League club to have an American owner and would continue the trend of foreign investors moving into English football.

John Wardle, Manchester City's chairman, said he would be willing to step down if multi-million-pound investors can be found. With Malcolm Glazer's family running Manchester United, George Gillett and Tom Hicks taking control of Liverpool, and Randy Lerner heading Aston Villa, there is a good chance Manchester City will be the fourth major club to be sold to Americans in the past two years.

Traditionalists may not like the idea, particularly since both Manchester clubs will be run from the US, but it is not likely to cause a hostile reaction from Manchester City's supporters and will not be like the protests when the Glazers took over Manchester United.

Manchester City is fifth from the bottom in the Premier League and club manager Stuart Pearce has had to operate with a restricted transfer budget.

The club has overcome the worst of its financial problems, but it remains heavily in debt and a takeover appears to be the only way for it to raise the money to break into the Premier League's elite.

Assurances that a considerable amount of money would be made available in the transfer market are key to the talks.

The discussions are being described as "preliminary" and Manchester City would not comment any further other than to say it "may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.