Dr. Football Interview with Ferran Soriano the Chief Executive of Manchester City Football club.

foreign [Music] thank you I'm very happy to be here so let's let's just dive right into it uh

in the 70th minute when when Philippe coutinho scored Aston Villa's second goal

and you had apparently created a single chance you had played all so well during that season but it seemed to be all going the wrong way

did you think very nice I should have sent a strike no this is not what I thought I I have

to confess that that I was worried I was concerned so first I I started thinking about my role I guess the CEO of the club

um I have to be there to support when things go wrong so I started to think be calm think about what do we need to do if we lose the game how are we going to

manage the disappointment so I was mentally preparing for what was coming and but on the technical side let me say

some people are saying your team is going to be great now with the addition of Holland yeah and I say remember we're gonna play 11 players not 12. so it's

not the addition of Holland if you put a striker in our team you have to take somebody out and you have to take somebody out from a team that has been winning the Premier League four of the

last five that has been breaking records in scoring goals so the system as it is works and it does not need a striker as it is

on the long term and after Aguero left we we thought we needed the striker and we thought we have the best Striker possible now but it's not an addition if if we play with the striker with this

Striker we will play without another player and the system will have to adapt to that you have this fixed system of a 433 a Barcelona Johan cruy 433 at

Monster City yeah this is it's not always exactly 433 but this is the pillar right so the the basic pill of the approach to football sometimes we call it philosophy the way we play

football is always the same high defensive lines possession of the ball Wingers open that's how we approach the game by the way in Manchester City and

in all of our other teams around around the world so uh you know the inspirational player at the team

that used to be uh Aguero is now maybe Kevin De bruina and but you lost your daughter no now I'm I'm talking about your book you lost the

fernandinho he's gone total no it's gone so nobody there to say no anymore but I came into Brunei he always steps up and he made this pass for the the

third call the winning goal is it true what we read in the newspaper here in Iceland that he negotiated his own contract yes um the majority of players use agents

for that and he didn't okay he just used the lawyer Kevin has has become a leader in in our club and he's been growing and growing his uh his spectacular player on

the pitch but he's also a leader in the dressing room he's a quiet leader but every time we need him he's he is he's there this was so people don't remember but

um the amount of money that we paid for him I think in pounds over 62 million and there was a there was a famous uh cover of one of the English newspaper

with a picture of him and he said the 62 million flop because they they said Tiki was wrong to to buy this play and he was clearly right so

um Kevin De bruina is now a legend at Manchester City and he still has years to play and he will be one of the one of the key historical players of this club

absolutely um just just quickly about you far and before we speak more about Manchester City and City football group you have a lot of experience in this market

you've been in football for 20 years now came into Barcelona in the summer of 2003 and what the summer that was first

summer working for Barcelona obviously changed the changed Barcelona um but you signed Ronaldinho that first year if you had not sent Ronaldinho

and he would have gone to Manchester United would you add Ronaldo at Barcelona uh I think is a real possibility so I'll

tell you the story the story is we we actually tried to sign Beckham so just making the story short at the time um FC Barcelona was in a very difficult

situation both economically and on the pitch they they won in the previous season they qualified six to be able to play the Europa League at the time it was

they had a different name Yeah by by qualifying six in the league and the star of the team was an Argentinian player by the name of saviola yes so we

tried to sign Beckham and he decided to go to Real Real Madrid he actually said to us I like you guys but I want to go to a team that is already a champion

team but I don't have the responsibility to turn this around so then we went to run to uh Ronaldinho but the same year we actually signed a player

[Music] from sporting this one um so there were two very good very good young players at the time at sporting

Quaresma and Cristiano and we paid 6 million for Quaresma and he was very good and we thought it actually he became a very good player

but Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to come too but at that time Manchester United made an offer of 18 million which seemed totally crazy yeah and we said too much

so we we made a mistake um but actually we were very happy to find Ronaldinho who was an extraordinary

player on the pitch and also a leader a character leader that helped us turn around Barcelona from losing games and losing money to winning games and and

making money he actually became the best player in the world but it was you know and he he won you that well he was part of the team that won the Champions

League in in 2006 and but this decline was quite fast you know it's like a superstar like Messi and Ronaldo they always had each other to compete

maybe Ronaldinho was missing somebody to to keep him on his toes that's an interesting idea that's an interesting idea because effectively he he lost the

intensity and focus and and he was lost for the game and Ronaldinho could have been one of the best players in the history yeah

and you you go through this and and you go through your Barcelona time in your book the gold which is a fantastic book for you know anyone in management even if it's football or not but you you

think a lot about this summer in 2006 where you know you should have made some changes you know new things were going

wrong but you did not and the team had quite a decline over the next two years and you also say you you refused an

offer for Ronaldinho in 2007 for 60 million Euros and you ended up selling him the year later for 20 million in to uh to AC Milan this is one of the challenges of this

business of the business of football I I've been in this business for many years now but this is not what what I started working on or what I learned I've been in in other Industries I've

been in the Telecom industry in the fast consumer goods industry and fast moving consumer goods industry and also in aviation football is different because there is emotion there's a degree or

agree a degree of emotion that sometimes does not allow you to make the right decisions and you're talking about a period where at FC Barcelona we went from nothing to

win the league in the Champions League at the same year so one year later we could see the decline in some of the elements of the team but I would say we

didn't have the guts to make the changes because there was a motion um I remember having a conversation with Frank Reichert and and and telling him this is not working you have to be

stronger with the team and ask for more commitment and more work and Frank Reichert said yeah I understand but you know what I love these players so it's

it's challenging and decisions that should have been made in 2017 we made them late in 2018 and and we spent two years without winning nothing right yeah

one bad decision was not to sell Ronaldinho for 60 million and then sell sell him for 25.

um but at the end we reacted right and we we had to let Frank Reinhart go who was an excellent person and an excellent coach but we needed a change Pep

Guardiola came Ronaldinho left Deco and others and we started another cycle of winning but you know since you're a nice little guy I need to talk to you in this

famous sermon of 2006. where there

seemed to be some discipline problems in Barcelona first came of the Season no Ronaldinho there and so on and iterk Johnson rescued the team scoring in the first game and winning the first uh they

came you wanted but he didn't want to come to Barcelona at that time he wanted to stay at Arsenal then

wanted Diego Forlan but Frank Reichert wanted iterco Johnson so when the monitor coach as you call it

and the the head of football like Dixie when they argue about player one wants for them the other one wants codons I'll tell you the story I'll tell you that I'll tell you the inside the Inside

Story first of all we won the league we so we won the Champions League against Arsenal and we we had an agreement that Thierry Henry would come and join us and we were

celebrating the the title at the cam no a hundred thousand people singing and enjoying themselves and I got a call so I stepped off and this was

the agent of tyrionry and he said I cannot believe what I'm gonna tell you but he's not coming I said in the flight back

he was flying back from Paris to London after losing the final against us he picked up the microphone and he said to the Arsenal fans I'm so sorry we lost

we'll be back next year oh so so that's that's number one then the second conversation was a conversation between where cheeky was there and and and Frank

Reichert and it was a conversation about signing a striker and the two candidates were as you said good Johnson and four land and there was some sort of a technical discussion where Fallen was a

typical number nine a typical Striker good Johnson was more of a second Striker somebody that would come from behind and cheeky thought the best option for us

was for love and reichardt thought he was good Johnson and that it was a constructive conversation the good friends but at the end Riker was saying no good jobs and stronger he's stronger

it's going to be better for us it's going to be better for us and at some point he said okay fine fine and he left okay so then CK and I sitting there and cheeky said

you know what this guy just won the league in the Champions League for us if you want to go Johnson it will be a good

chance okay so it's uh these situations the the decisions about the squad are ultimately made by the football director

in our case Chiki begis thing but he has to measure that he has to measure when can he take a decision that is different from what the coach thinks and

he has to measure sometimes it's one way or another I think cheeky would say and he said at the time if we bring him good Johnson Franca is gonna Frank Reichert is going to hug him

the first day and everything will be fine and this is what we need now so in this case Tiki considered okay you you hire uh Pep Guardiola to Barcelona and I'm I'm going to leave Barcelona a

little bit now but but you were you were from Catalonia and Pep Guardiola is from Carolina you are similar age you are a few years older than him did you know like since he was a young

guy that you know is Pap cardiola he's going to you know he's a great midfielder but he's also going to become a coach everybody that played with pep including

cheeky would say that that when he was a player he was already obsessed about the game about understanding what was going on so they would explain it to you this

was a famous Barcelona team who won the Champions League at the at the time and they would say some players would just you know go and play and don't know

listen not listen a lot to the coach some players would just listen to the coach according to okay what do I need to do and Pep Guardiola wanted to know

how are we going to play what do I need to do and why do I need to do and how does it fit with the overall thing yeah right so they he was a coach yeah already a manager at the

time so you had them in my in mind for for a long time yeah I think I we should attribute this decision not to me but to cheeky so ultimately we were at Barcelona and we are very

disciplined in our teams at the city football group that the football director is the boss is the one who makes the recommendation and the decision about the coach so at the time of Barcelona we knew that frankly had

needed to go there were several candidates the two final candidates were Mourinho and pep and cheeky came to one of the meetings having done the analysis

and he said my recommendation is Pep it doesn't have the experience but he has the talent he has the commitment he understands what is what this is and he'll do well and he was right and he

was right fast forward to 2012 when you uh joined the city group and uh you know you you come this year this famous year in Monster City's history they were so

lucky winning the league you don't like luck you have no belief in you know I I always say you know this guy was lucky or you know I can see

every instance you were very unlucky in the Champions League this year that was that's my opinion and but you were also quite lucky when you did not concede the penalty at goodison Park when the ball went into

rotary center so you know why does luck not exist because because you have to make a difference between the shorter and the

long term luck exists in the short term in the super short term yeah so I I could say that when we lost in Madrid

um 2-1 with them scoring two goals in two minutes in the minute 90 that's bad luck but that's bad luck in that particular moment yeah if you look at

five years of work 10 years of war the luck compensates itself it's not about luck it's about hard work and

intelligence and you need to have the patience and the mental strength to accept the bad luck when it comes and I've seen a lot about luck knowing that

if I keep working hard good luck will come naturally but but you wasted no time in 2012 you've got taxi on board with you and and you you hire in the summer Manuel

Pellegrini um when you make the manual pelgrini the monster city codes did you make him aware that well you were the coach now

but you know I I have in my mind to get uh cardiola here once he becomes available yes what he knew was the reality because uh Manuel is an

extraordinary person and we like him so much and the reality of what happened I can I can tell you is that first we we made a technical assessment

that was done by cheeky that told us we needed a new coach and then we look at all the available candidates and our preferred candidate was Pep Guardiola so

we spoke to pep and he said I want to go to Bayern Munich this is what I feel I I have to do now for different reasons I'm gonna go to buy buy Munich so we went to

the second on the list who was Manuel Pellegrini so Manuel Pellegrini knew that we had spoken to pep first and this was natural because both cheeky and I

had worked with pep before then Manuel had a three-year contract the contract expired naturally and I'd say one year

before he expired we told him now pep wants to come yeah so so he will come and then Manuel he was the one who

decided okay I'm fine let's say it I don't have a problem okay so it was a very natural a very natural transition in your book you talk a lot about

balance commitment and and so on uh you come in another 2012 is it a coincidence that uh players like Mario panotelli and Carlos Tevis left so shortly after you

arrived yeah I think it is a coincidence so Balotelli was fighting with the coach at the time yeah um but it is true that I've learned we

have learned over the years that addressing room is a very small community where players have to be essentially good

people right so they need to be good football players but good people too and they have to respect each other and I I don't remember any experience where we would have a player that would not

behave appropriately and that would be good for the team it's always bad for the team and I think if you ask pep pep would tell you this first I want a good person and then a

good football player because a bad person so a person that is not respectful or doesn't work or doesn't is not a team member can destroy your team

can destroy a dressing room well the the thing is that monster city has obviously dominated the Premier League now for the last uh five years you wanted four out of the last five

times you've you managed to get 100 points in a season or something we thought that was never never possible I was so lucky to follow the monster City team in Los Angeles before that season

because you came here and played the preseason game in West Ham so I was allowed to go in there and and watch you guys uh what's your team to train and the intensity was like nothing I've ever

seen before um but there's one thing missing that's the Champions League

so is it maybe can you somehow view it as a good thing that you're not won the Champions League because you know it makes everyone work extremely hard every summer because you

know hey we we need to get this one with the big ears yeah I think let me tell you how we think about this obviously we want to win the championship and I'll be very happy the day that we will win it

because I think that we will win it but we don't make this the core of our objective because of what I said right luck plays a role in the Champions

League because they're a handful of games and you can have a bad game in the semi-final and you're up but it doesn't play a role in the league so whoever wins the league is the best team in the

league yeah so we say internally the league is our bread and butter this is what we do for living the league and the Champions League is an additional trophy that we want but we know that it might

be subject to a bit of luck so we're not obsessed and you know people talk now about the success that the Real Madrid had in the last in the last years and I

think it's fair to say that there was a bit of luck yes if you look at that if you look maybe you know I could say they deserve to lose I get p is against PSG against Chelsea against us against

Liverpool yeah but people do not remember that in the 90s in the 80s the Real Madrid had a fantastic team one of the best in the history with butrageno yeah and they couldn't win and they were

knockout of the Champions League every year by AC Milan so they they had they they have they had some good luck now but they also had some very bad luck for

years so we're patients we're patient this is not an obsession we will win it at the right time okay um you know you know has such a

strange relationship with his main rival now with the liquid the open clock because they speak very respectfully of each other they don't get engaged into some some war words or anything because

one of the things that maybe draw him out of La Liga was his very intensively intense relationship with Mourinho a relationship that also went into the Spanish national team a relationship

that might be you know in the future there will be TV shows movies books written about this tension

so you think it maybe maybe helps that you know it's it's it's a different environment in England he maybe enjoys this a little bit more yeah I think

um club and pep they respect each other the way it should be right and in general I would say that coaches managers they

respect each other and they all understand that the only rivalry happens on the beach and and of course you respect the winner and that's the way it goes and that's the way it should should

be I think the history that you mentioned between Pepa and Mourinho it was due to things that happened off the pitch actually pep said that at some point he

said off the beach he wins in a famous press conference on the beach I'll try to win right the relationship that I've seen among the

managers in the Premier League is excellent yeah you brought in Pep Guardiola in December of 2016. what did

Manchester United do we brought in Mourinho but this summer uh let's let's focus on the present and we'll come shortly on to

City football group but this summer you want to take someone to your favorite shop the Bundesliga you'll love that shop you you go there to Germany to shop every year and buy very good things you

know you have had obviously Kevin De Bruins who was perhaps first signing and previous before you came Mission company came there and TECO and so on but this

time erling Holland and he's the first Superstar actually if you know yeah super superstar you have signed to Manchester City how excited are you to have Adeline

Holland on board I must say we're very very excited but I I want to tell you honestly that all the

football decisions all the signing decisions are taking through a football lens not a marketing lens or not a

celebrity lens so we think cheeky and pep and the whole group they think very carefully about the players that they need for the team

and this is what they signed so in this case it happens to be that that Holland has a profile I think you are right that he's a he has developed this profile as a superstar but this is not the reason

why we sign him we sign him because we think that he's gonna score a lot of goals and then he has the intelligence to adapt to our system right the system

is very complex so when you you said you saw the intensity in the training if you would see the intensity in the way they discuss the how are they going to play

It's the very sophisticated so you need to be a very sophisticated player to be able to adapt to this and we think that Holland will do but I promise you it's a

football decision it's not a marketing or celebrity decision I can understand that I mean Norway is not a big market so why would that be a commercial

decision to sign a Norwegian player here yeah I think going back to the Bundesliga the Bundesliga is a very good league and it's it's it's physical but

there's also a lot of a lot of talent right and I don't think we have a special uh focus on the Bundesliga but it's true that we signed we've been

successful signing very good players I want to tell you something about luck yeah I just remember this okay so you said we won against Aston Villa and we won

the league and maybe we were lucky after a minute 78 yeah so let me point out the two things changes Sterling

who who crossed for the first goal yes and then there was luck there because Martin Cass slipped the same time he made the cross so the ball went over to wundergan okay okay but but this is the

substitution created the chance but more importantly gundogan at the end of the game there's an interesting interview where they were

asking pep why did you choose gundogan and he was saying he he has special intelligence to be at the right place at the right time and the second line so

and when you see it he was saying it and you could see the images of Kevin De bruyne on the third goal and you see how when Kevin De bruyne starts to run gundogan starts to run yeah he doesn't

know where the goal where the ball is going to be but he starts to run so ultimately this was a good decision to put the right player at the right time

yeah so no luck no luck and you know negotiating with uh with a superstar like Holland how long did it take because you speak a lot about in your book about coming over prepared for meetings

and negotiations you need to be over prepared because the negot the the agents only have one job they are thinking about this all year about this one deal so you need to come over

prepared for it how long was this uh process together it was long because everybody knows that Holland could have gone anywhere right so many clubs you

know all the rumors it was a transparent situation because he had a release Clause so he could leave from Dorman yeah he didn't need any negotiation and

a lot of clubs were wanting to sign him so he made the decision and he made a well-informed decision based basically on football yeah

criteria where are we going to play where am I going to play how am I going to play how am I going to work with this coach so it was a football decision because the economical the financial

decision was was not the challenge the the fee with Dorman was agreed in the release clause and a lot of clubs wanting to pay the

the salary that he that he gets I think that is also an important Point his father yeah Alfie Holland who is a former football player

obviously very smart and understands football understands the Premier League and the stands Manchester City because he played the Manchester City so he he

was a good I think a good advisor tuition yeah so when you when you're dealing with a superstar it's not one agent it's a whole team behind

definitely so but but in this case I'd say the key point was the technical discussion about football and about

how is it going to fit into this machine that works remember so you said it we want four leagues out of five we scored so many goals

he had to feel and he feels now that he could get into this system and perform do you think you can set some records sir be the first guy to score more than 40

goals in a Premier League season I can't say that the one thing that I would say for all the Manchester City fans and I know there are a lot in Iceland is we'll

have to be patient so anybody getting into our team needs time okay no goal after 14 games you're still relaxed yes okay so but how confident are you about

this health like he only started 21 games in the Bundesliga this year yeah yeah obviously we looked we looked at this um with with detail and we are convinced that he is fit and that he can

play at the at the maximum level this is just a medical conversation and we've done every Tech that we could do and we're confident okay uh that that's very

interesting and uh but but looking ahead I mean you have this relationship with FC Barcelona obviously you takes the impact the three of you worked at Barcelona and so on we know about the

difficulties at Barcelona everybody knows about it Barcelona has players which when I was in play they are Pep place with Petri with gavi with anzu party

but sometimes I feel like it's maybe out of respect that you do not pit for them or no no we we have a normal commercial

relationship with with Barcelona we sold them a player six months ago faran Torres and if we have to do business we would we would do it but the reality is that

we're starting from a position of strength the current squat is very good so we need to change only what we need to change and we need to change two

things we need a striker we have it and we need a replacement for Fernandina you need to know yes we have one rodri yes but we need and we need another because

the season is very it's very long so we we're only looking at these two players so at Barcelona there's no Striker and there's no we call it the number six or

holding holding holding midfielder yeah all these players that you mentioned are very good players but we have these positions more than covered not only with a with the top players experienced

players that we have but others that are coming like Palmer or mcatee is a very young English players with a bright future the same bright future of the

players that you mentioned from Barcelona yeah and all of a sudden now you're you're creating your own Superstars within your a master City Academy obviously with with philipotent

now being one of the faces of of Manchester City Phil foden is a spectacular example of a boy that has been in our Academy from when he was 10 years old and he's a Manchester City fan

but if I may say this this year we won the Premier League we won the Premier League two which is the the on the 21

and we won the under 18 and last year we won the three again yeah right so there is a long list of very good young players that have been winning with

Manchester City and they're coming up and there'll be there'll be some stars there I've been visiting Manchester now for since 1996 coming there every year for most United games and sometimes

Monster City and I can see the Improvement in the area around Manchester City you made the people that are rich because you have the housing prices gone

up the roof and uh was that something that you you were aware of when you came there that you wanted to invest in the community because this is a great change since like the

first time when I went around yeah this is in the DNA of Manchester Manchester City if you look at the history of the club the club was funded by a church

right and there's this famous story of the daughter of the vicar who said at some point we're talking now at the end of the 19th century and she said in the

times of the Industrial Revolution very difficult times in in England and in Manchester and she said boys and men when they stop working the factories on Saturday afternoon the only thing they

do is to fight and to drink we need to do something and they created the football team and a cricket team yeah so that's in the spirit of the club in the club does a lot with the community and

you're right that the Etihad Stadium was in a very tough environment a very difficult area of Manchester a poor area and an industrial area yeah and now it's flourishing yeah it's absolutely boring

and if you speak to the people that they are very happy with what you've done for the community but City football group is not only about Monster City though my main interest is in Manchester City you have a lot of football clubs around the

world you have a club in New York and when you started out there were stars in New York City but that would be uh your front Lampard you

were you were bringing in famous names when I look at the New York City team that became Champions now I'm obsessed with football I what food what's too much football but I don't know many names there I won't

see when he won the you are the MLS Champions now but your approach seems to have changed a little bit you are becoming like a development team or like uh you know

like I look at the average age of the team and so on and you yeah I can tell you I can tell you the story so first of all remember that this team was created from scratch right so there was nothing

yeah they didn't exist no the first day we went to New York in 2012 there was nothing so we had to create a a team a batch a name a color everything so

the idea is an old idea it's a 2005 idea okay so we we find we finally made it happen and we thought so New York is a very difficult place because there's so much

to do right so it's the capital of entertainment in the world and we thought at the time how are we going to make sure that people are going to look at this at a

soccer team and and we thought we need some Stars yeah to call the attention and we did call the attention and we brought David the Frank Lampard Andrea I

think it's fair to say that David Villa made an extraordinary contribution he was the best player in the MLS yeah for sure yeah but pillow and Lampard they had a lot of injuries

when it didn't work yeah but we did call the attention at a certain point we we thought we don't need to call the attention anymore we need to play good football

and we need to win and we're doing this with young players also because this is the budget that we have so the size of of the business does not allow us to to

pay for very expensive players so we're looking at young players and and we already have some Stars right so we have Valentin Castellanos he's an Argentinian

player who won the Golden Boot and he is a star by by his own Merit and he's he's very young and you're obviously the MLS Champions now dated with an Icelandic

player included one of the things that was surprising to me because you know I'm so fascinated with America and how the MLS is standing outside of FIFA and so on

is that the New York City manager he leaves for from New York to go to standard why would anybody

if you live in New York why would you go to Belgium to live there this is a very good question then you should ask him because I think the same yeah I think

you know New York for anybody um in in New York you live in a great City yes we have a fantastic training

ground we have 20 25 000 people watching the games yes we're the Champions I mean I would want to live there yeah me too not in liege but you know we we respect

him he's done very good with us and he he wants to go I think he wants to be closer to home and we respect that you've also done very well in Australia

uh with your with your clubs they're obviously have also uh focusing and focus on on Asian countries Japan

yeah we have uh today 11 football clubs in 11 different countries in America in Europe and in Asia and each Club has different personality and different

functions our club in Uruguay obviously is focusing on developing players Uruguay is a very small country yeah it's 3.5 million or so yeah yeah and but they won the World Cup twice so they

probably have very good players yeah so I think if you do a ratio good football players or football player is playing at Targets football players playing in the

top five leagues yeah versus population Uruguay is number one yes by far yes other places like India they're not the Indian players that are

developing but none of them has the level to to go to Europe there so it's a different play it's more we are in Mumbai the capital of entertainment of India

um so in different places in the world we have different strategies but I I have to say that this season has been our best season ever and we're so happy

because we won the league not only in the U.S but also of course in in England

the U.S but also of course in in England um we won the league in Bolivia yeah we've won the league in this last 18

months in in India so we won a lot of leaks but also we got achievements like last Sunday our team in Spain Girona giron is a very nice city north of

Barcelona got promoted to La Liga you beat my team Tenerife oh yeah is it your team yeah I always go to Tenerife to support but I was following it because I was

hoping to get La Liga games to Tenerife okay you can come to Girona you're invited and and also you know we just checked this yesterday because with this

Girona game it was the last game of our season yeah and we had seven of the 11 clubs had the chance to qualify for regional competitions being Champions

League or concacaf Champions League or Asian champions league and the seven of them got it done so we had a great season in terms of the woman's game the city

football club has done very well with the with the female team at Manchester City but you're going to through great changes there the the player there there's a lot of uh players going in and

going out yeah at the moment yeah I think we we are very focused on on the on the women's game it's the the level of

quality keeps improving and improving I think I if you watch a a an English league game you would see more and more high

quality players the business is growing little by little and in the case of Manchester City we won the league several times and we won the couple last year and this year for for whatever

reason the three or four players living but the three or four new players coming very good and very young players so we we are we feel positive about this actually Iceland is coming over to

Manchester to play yes in the use our facilities so we'll we'll have your team there yeah um you know the the one of the things of

uh in your book you talk a lot about the the three different uh parts of incomings for for football teams and one of them is a statue you're playing at the track and field

Stadium now and at the art which was the Commonwealth Games you know have you ever thought about moving no no we we actually have improved the

the etiad stadium several times of course the the track um is not there anymore and we have uh expanded

um one of the stands the uh South stand and we're now planning to expand the north stand so what we what we want to do is to keep growing in the

same place yeah so so what how do you feel about the the season it's starting extremely early this year we're gonna have a strange break there's going to be a timing from November to December where

erling Holland who doesn't go to the World Cup he's not what are they going to do with him are you going to send him to Tenerife to me or is you know what the reality is nobody knows yeah nobody

knows what's going to happen we've done a lot of analysis and research and calculation but we don't know the fact that the season starts one week earlier it's a bit unfortunate for anybody that

wants to take some holidays and and you know at the time we will be playing and some of the fans will still be be on be on holiday but the great unknown is as

you said how are we going to manage this six seven six weeks out yeah um we we will have most of our players in the world cup yeah so obviously the

next question is how are they going to come back because if you play the players that go to the final or to the semi-final will have no rest our first

game is at 26th of December so it's going to be a challenge it's going to be a challenge and quite frankly nobody in the industry nobody in the world of

football knows how it's going to go and how to manage it why in in your opinion because you've worked so closely in with the La Liga and so on why is the Premier

League Kink why is it like you know why is Premier League the Envy of everybody I think there are historical reasons so the Premier League was always ahead

right and some of these are also historical reasons and yes you know the the the English culture is spread around

around the world the idea of the of the Commonwealth um I don't know to what extent it exists from a political point of view but it exists from a from a cultural point of view you go to our Australia and they

think about European football they think about England yeah but the same happens in Hong Kong right so the Premier League was the first League to be professionally organized and take

advantage of that and create a game that is exciting and that is not thought only for the domestic audience but globally

so other leagues are trying to do this La Liga is maybe the second and then Bundesliga but they're just behind it's a question of of as a set of culture

history and professional management but but the the very interesting thing is that you've grown so much in the last few years in the last 10 years that you know of all your fund base one percent

of them lives in Manchester that was a survey I I read a few weeks ago so so you are you are so globalist football team you are you having yes having

mastered yes but this applies to the league the Premier League as a whole when you look at the total audience of the Premier League the audience in

England it's never more than temperature 90 of the audience is is elsewhere and sometimes this is a challenge for people managing clubs and managing the league

because because if you ask a marketing person in a Premier League club who's your client they might tell you they might think about a local English person

that goes to the game but a lot of their clients are in China or in Iceland and we need to be able to connect to them and to engage with them and to deliver the product to them

fun and you you've been all over the world for football and is do you have is it some one place that you feel like when you're there you like

this is football like where is your what is the is there a is there any place that comes to your head and you go like uh this visit very there are many but

there's one thing I think that is impossible to to reproduce elsewhere which is South America yeah you go to Argentina and so the difference is let me expand a

bit of this the difference is that in England football is a sport and people talk about the sport and they enjoy and they watch but it's not an integral part of their life

okay if you go to if you live in Argentina the the first question if you know somebody is what's your name but the second question is what is your team

yeah right so the teams are embedded in the fabric of societies and the part of their life and the passion that that

through they leave this is unbelievable is crazy and it makes it a bit magic right so this is not only in Argentina it happens in other places also in Turkey as an

example but yeah go out and the River Plate Boca Juniors game and you'll see this is not football it's something else so uh you know

you're growing the city front and the city football group all the time you know most teams most uh clubs they go to Thailand go to America

what are you doing tonight uh I know the passion that that exists in in Iceland and we want to be closer

to Icelandic fans yes I I just I just want to get to know them we're bringing the trophy I think you tell me but I think it's the first time that the Premier League trophy is in is in

Iceland and I want to establish a long-term relationship with football fans in Iceland and also with teams and Federation and the Federation and so on

because I think I think it's a it's a it's a place where football will grow yeah and and I love it I I I'm here often so I love I I love you you're

often interesting yeah I've been here as a tourist several several times okay so it's not often we have football royalty coming to Iceland it's the the clubs want to go to Asia to expand or to

America to expand we we never get representatives from from one of the one of the big ones if you like I am I am very happy to be here but I'll tell you

a little a little anecdote yeah so so some Icelandic fans went to Manchester to watch the Manchester City Liverpool game and so I

was talking to them and they were asking me have you been to Iceland and said yes I went the last time I went I tried fly fishing and I fished nothing

and and they told me okay if you come to Iceland we'll take you fly fishing and you will fly something and I said okay if we win the Premier League I'll come up with the topic okay so you're and

here I am with the traffic oh very good I think I'll kind of let you uh you have a very busy schedule I had fun and but it was an absolute pleasure of discussing this uh City football group

and obviously Manchester City which is which is sort of everyone's interest in Iceland thank you so much thank you