If we can just leave football on the pitch for a while
and turn to something you mentioned earlier.
The pandemic COVID which hit your country
Badly.
Our country badly hit the whole world badly.
How do you think Manchester City have coped with it and how proud of
Were you of the response of the club to the crisis?
I don't mean in terms, just getting football up and running again,
but also in terms of helping authorities and local communities.
Very proud, I think, from donating the Etihad Stadium to
the health services in Manchester which to this day continues to be
used by them and that part we put it with immense pride.
Everybody involved with the club.
Everyone pitched them from donating to the food bank.
The commitments of our players our young lads in the academy writing letters
to some of the people that have been affected by the pandemic.
I'm very, very proud of everyone.
At the club, everyone in the group in Manchester, in New York,
in China and, you know, from east to west our operations all over
the world, Australia, we've worked as a team.
We work closely with the community, each respective
community that we are part of.
I think we delivered what we can and that's gonna continue to be the case.
This COVID is not has not ended.
It will continue to be a challenge.
And we will continue to do right by everyone.
To our people, our fans, our players our employees everywhere and all
the stakeholders that we have worked with.
Have any projects been put on hold during the pandemic?
I'm thinking now, pressing on with the development around the Etihad
in the surrounding areas. Have projects been put on hold or
have they been killed forever or how are those progressing?
So the word here is, I think, pragmatism and sensibility.
Some of the projects obviously continue, and as a matter of fact, we see the
sense of expediting them other projects because of again the challenges that
come with COVID, we've had to put on pause the expansion of the stadium, some
of the changes that we wanted to do with the hospitality, you know, we're gonna
have to figure out as it comes what's going to be that experience post COVID
in the stadium and what's gonna work in what's not gonna work.
One thing is clear is that we can't think in the same way we have to adjust and we
have to accept that what COVID has done will have an impact on the future.
And then we have to be ready to adjust to that. We made an investment
as an example, in a team in Belgium
Lommel which again falls within our strategy.
But we expedited it because the opportunity was there.
We're looking at maybe making another move in the French second division.
So we're not going to shy away when the opportunity arises, but also be pragmatic
and sensible when it comes to the overall investments.
On a wider level do you think football per se will be changed by the financial
impacts caused by the worldwide lockdowns?
And I'm thinking will some clubs go to the wall?
Will leagues have to be reorganised?
How do you think it will impact football as a whole?
The challenge is very big for football.
That is clear. I think over the next 12 to 24 months.
As football recovers from COVID you will see changes.
Now.
The magnitude of this changes I think depends on many different things.
But I believe,
particularly with the realities that COVID is putting in terms
of impact on revenue, impact on sponsors impact on
the audience at the stadium and the revenues
from stadium hospitality these you are different from
team to team and from league to league
It's not consistent in terms of the level of the impact, but
the impact is there and the impact is going to be very challenging.
We said goodbye to one legend this summer with David Silva and another one.
As of now, is set to go in 10 months.
Has there, or will there be any talks to persuade Sergio Aguero to stay?
And can you?
Can you talk about that?
You know, Chris, we've been very lucky, and I think it's a testament
to the type of players we've had over the years.
To have players like David Silva, like Vincent kompany by Pablo Zabaleta, like Sergio
Aguero that have committed and stuck with the team for many many years.
I think this is a testament to these players, their personalities,
their commitment to Manchester, their commitment to the club.
And I think the relationship that we've been able to build between
the club and these players, between the managers and obviously you know,
that whole ecosystem, you know, to have a player like that.
David Silva essentially commit 10 years of his life to this club.
To have a player like Sergio Aguero
do the same, you know, I'm very proud of that, because
this is what tells me we have it right.
They are part of the
DNA of the club now, and the decision of them continuing or stopping this is really it's
the comfort zone that they have to decide what's in the same way with Vincent.
You know, he left when he felt was right for him to leave and the same thing
with with David Silva. Sergio's gonna be the same, and we're gonna work
it out together and it will be very natural whenever that is - next year or the
year after, it will play out in a comfortable way.
Whatever Sergio decides,
I guess I'm gonna get a similar answer to this one
It's a similar similar question. Pep himself only has 10 months left on his contract.
As of now, is this gonna be his last season?
Or do you think his contract will be extended also?
Yeah.
I mean, first of all, you're right in asking the questions.
A very relevant question.
But it's really this.
Ah, very similar answer I'm gonna give. This conversation
with Pep is a natural conversation.
Me and him have a very clear understanding.
We have a clear understanding of what's right for the club and what's not.
We have a clear alignment in terms of where we see
the future and what we want in terms of success for the club.
i think again
It's gonna be a comfortable conversation as we go and it will work out
the best way for Pep, for me and for the club that I'm very comfortable about.
So there's no specific talks taking place or specific talks planned as of now it
will just be a conversation over over the coming weeks and months.
He is that good summation?
Everything will work out naturally.
and in the right way.
And I think we have the right people involved
We have the right trust in each other,
and what's best will happen.
The women's team have also had a busy
time of it in the transfer marketrecently in a big, shift.
There seems to have been a concerted effort.
To elevate the women's team here
in Manchester a new level.
this season. Two USA
World Cup
Winners have arrived.
Gareth Taylor.
has become the new manager and, as we understand
it other high profile stars are on the way.
What what was the thinking behind all this?
We've been committed from the beginning to the woman's game I have.
I have a very strong view about how this game's going to evolve and
how in the years to come, the women's game is gonna continue
to grow and turn into a very important part of football.
So our commitment is consistent with a team we've built over
the years that has done very well. Finishing second again
isn't our target, but it shows you consistency.
Over the last four years in terms of how we were able to continue to put a very
strong group of players, a very competitive team with a great manager and
Now we have a transition.
Gareth comes in.
Nick moves on to New York and I
Think again is a great thing for me to see how we can continue should
continue to show progress within the group from Gareth coming from the
academy, taking on a head coaching role to Nick moving from
the women's team to assistant coach in New York men's team.
This group that we have provides incredible opportunity
for development and growth to our coaching staff.
To our players to our individuals and that's phenomenal.
The woman's game is going in the right direction.
I think COVID is gonna put a lot of pressure on it.
I remain very hopeful that the game is going to be able to withstand
the challenges of COVID, recover and come back and I hope that within the
Premier League and within the teams in the UK more clubs give a commitment
to the game because the more commitment that comes in, the more competitive
it's going to be and the more sustainable it's gonna be
We're gonna be there, you know, Manchester City is gonna be there.
We have a belief in the women's game
and we will be committed throughout and we will be supportive and we'll
help these leagues and hopefully it will grow.
Just just finally you touched upon this - the club in Belgium.
Once in France, maybe coming.
How pleased are you with the way CFG is working? How the model works?
I'm very pleased.
You know, when Silverlake came in
took a view on our business model took a view with the way we run things
and invested a lot of money to join our shareholding base, I think that's
a huge validation to the strategy that we've been undertaking
and the execution and success of that strategy.
Now, since then, we've added obviously Mumbai City. Lommel
in Belgium, becomes the ninth club in the group.
And as I said we're gonna have hopefully soon
another club in the group, the model works.
The strategy is well proven
I think for us as a group, you know, it's no longer a
question of validation or a question of is this.
the right ethic?
I think now we've proven it works and proven that it's successful
and beneficial from a footballing sense, from a sporting
sense but also from a commercial and revenue sense.
I think many people are now starting to follow that path and
emulate it snd I think that's the biggest compliment to us.
in short, I am.
confident, and I'm very pleased with the way the evolution has happened.
It's not just in the boardroom, it's successful on
the pitch too which is very important to you.
It absolutely goes hand in hand, but
you know, the business we're in it's about both and you
Look at what we've been able to accomplish as an example with Yokohama Marinos in
Japan, Yokohama won the league for the first time in more than 15 years, an
incredible accomplishment and they did it in a very effective way.
I think we have got in that case in Yokohama.
I think the ninth or 10th wage bill in the league so to have that and win the league
in itself, I think, is a confirmation of the model on our success in it and that
global model that we have in terms of the clubs all around the world.
In Melbourne, we just finished the highest position we've ever had, second
in the league, and we're entering the playoffs and playing a semifinal very
shortly, and hopefully we'll go from strength to strength there.
Girona is in the second division.
We've made it to the playoffs and then even in Torque
we're investing in our next CFA there
Montevideo City is now being developed and you know it's working,
the model works and their success both on and off the pitch.