Man City owners buy second division side FC Palermo

The City Football Group, owner of Manchester City, is the new owner of the traditional Italian club FC Palermo.

The contract was officially signed on Friday before a Milan notary. The City Football Group will receive 80 percent of the shares in the club from Sicily for around 13 million euros. The remaining 20 percent will remain with entrepreneur Dario Mirri, who is also president of the Serie B returnees.

In addition to the English champions City, the holding company from Abu Dhabi owns ten other clubs. These include FC New York City, FC Melbourne City and FC Girona from Italy.

Palermo was relegated from Serie A in 2017. After the discovery of several accounting falsifications in the past, bankruptcy followed in 2019 and forced relegation to the fourth division.

After its re-formation, the club rose back up to Serie C in the 2019/20 season, which was cut short due to the pandemic, and has now returned to Serie B again.