City Football Group (CFG), the Abu Dhabi-based company that holds investments in Manchester City and 10 other football clubs, has made an offer to buy Brazilian league champions Atletico Mineiro, the Brazilian website reported on Monday. Globoesporte.com. The group offered about 1 billion reais ($195.64 million), according to the report, but the offer was rejected as too low.
The Belo Horizonte club are heavily indebted to a group of local businessmen who have loaned the club money over the past few years and made it one of the most successful in Brazil. The team won the Brazilian league and cup double last season and built a brand new stadium. Globo said that last year the debt reached 1.3 billion reais.
Atletico wouldn’t comment on the report, saying it was ‘speculation’. Premier League champions Manchester City did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If the deal goes through, Atletico would be the latest Brazilian club to fall into private hands since a law was passed last year allowing outside investors to own Brazilian teams. Until then, clubs belonged to their members.
In recent months, Cruzeiro has been taken over by a consortium led by Ronaldo, Botafogo has been taken over by a group led by a co-owner of Crystal Palace, and an American investment company has taken control of Vasco da Gama. CFG is one of the most powerful names in football and the majority owner of Manchester City, New York City FC and Melbourne City.
He also invested money in Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Montevideo City Torque in Uruguay, Girona in Spain, Sichuan Jiuniu in China, Mumbai City in India, Lommel SK in Belgium and Troyes in France. ($1 = 5.1115 reais)
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