Manchester City boss Sheikh Mansour recently bought French League second division club Esperance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne (ESTAC). The purchase of ESTAC was done through the parent company that manages the football association, City Football Group (CFG).
The majority of the group’s shares are owned by Man City boss, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of Abu Dhabi at 78 percent. Sheikh Mansour is an Emirati politician who holds various post in the goverment, namely the deputy prime minister of the UAE, minister of presidential affairs and member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi. He is also chairman of the Emirates horse racing authority (EHRA).
On Thursday (3/9/2020), CFG officially announced that it had bought the ESTAC club from its previous owner, Daniel Masoni. Daniel Masoni, a French businessman, has also bought a minority stake in the club. It menas that he will join the club’s board.
ESTAC is a soccer club that has been established since 1986. They are better known as Troyes. They obtained the Intertoto Cup trophy in 2001 and won the Ligue 2 title in the 2014-2015 season and then were promoted to Ligue 1. However, they had to return to playing in Ligue 2 after being relegated the following season.
The ESTAC headquarters are at the Stade de l’Aube Stadium with an audience capacity of 20,400 people. The 2019-2020 season, they finished fourth in the Ligue 2 event which was forced to end earlier due to the corona virus pandemic.
“We have had an interest in French football for some time and have long admired ESTAC,” said the CEO of the company CFG, Ferran Soriano. “So, we are very pleased to have completed the acquisition of our 10th club and have a permanent place in France. This is an achievement for CFG and shows how our model continues to adapt and grow in a relatively short time,” he continued.
The following 10 clubs are owned by CFG under the leadership of Sheikh Mansour as the majority shareholder of the company:
1. Manchester City – England
2. New York City – United States
3. Melbourne City – Australia
4. Yokohama F Marinos – Japan
5. Montevideo City Torque – Uruguay
6. Girona – Italy
7. Sichuan Jiuniu – China
8. Mumbai City – India
9. Lomsel SK – Belgium
10. ESTAC – France
