Man City chief Ferran Soriano explains why the Club World Cup does NOT betray local fans and 'history' - and opens up on club's transfer activity

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has described the Club World Cup as a 'great initiative' and the missing piece in the football calendar.
Soriano has spearheaded the globalisation of City in recent years and is the driving force behind the network of clubs within the City Football Group.
And despite criticism of the new, expanded tournament in the United States over the past month – some coming from City's own players - the Spaniard believes it is imperative that they are involved.
'It's very important to be here because we are a global football club,' Soriano said. 'We have our roots and we are proud of them.
'But you can be local and relevant and faithful to the history of the club and the fans that support you, but you can also be global and show what we do – which we believe is beautiful football – to the world.
'It's a combination that works very well and we are proud. I think it's a great initiative and we are very happy to be here.'
City opened their tournament by beating Wydad AC in Philadelphia on Wednesday and face Abu Dhabi's Al Ain – who were soundly beaten by Juventus – at the weekend.
'We are very excited by this,' Soriano added. 'I think it's something that was very much needed, soccer is a global sport and we have to make it global.
'You have to have teams like Manchester City playing teams from Morocco, Korea or wherever. That's part of the globalisation of the number one sport in the world.'
The 58-year-old also intimated that City's summer spending may be over after adding four new faces ahead of flying to America.
New director of football Hugo Viana has replenished the squad, with Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Marcus Bettinelli joining earlier in the month.
Guardiola has 24 outfield players here and will want that trimming before the Premier League season starts.
'I'm happy with the work we did,' Soriano said. 'Last summer we only bought one new player but this year between the winter and the summer it will be eight new ones.
'It's part of the annual cycle, the renewal of the squad. We accelerated some of it and now we are very happy with the squad we have.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Daily Mail​

26 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

Awkward moment fan's drink explodes over Livvy Dunne after he dropped it while giving her a hug

Former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne made a splash at Fanatics Fest on Friday. The 22-year-old was doused in Sprite as she arrived at the event's second instalment, which brings a host of celebrities and sports fans to New York City. Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Stephen A. Smith, Jaxson Dart and Peyton Manning were also among the star-studded attendees on Friday. But none had a more unfortunate start to their day than Dunne, who was filmed hugging a man after arriving in New York. He was holding a can of Sprite and, unfortunately for the former gymnast, the man let go of the drink while embracing Dunne. After the can hit the floor, it sent the soft drink spraying in all directions - including over Dunne. Dunne shocked social media when she appeared to make a sexual reference earlier on Friday Thankfully, however, Dunne - who was wearing blue jeans and a white sleeveless top - saw the funny side. She even apologized for her role in the chaos. It wasn't the first time on Friday that Dunne had gone viral. Earlier, the ex-gymnast sent social media into a spin after appearing to make a steamy sexual reference about herself and actress Madelyn Cline. It came after a user on X described the upcoming College World Series between LSU and Coastal Carolina as the 'Madelyn Cline vs Livvy Dunne Bowl', given the pair's previous education at the rival schools. The fairly innocent comment was then taken deep into left-field by Dunne, who surprisingly replied: 'Gooner World Series'. Fans were immediately left stunned by the apparent sexual reference posted by the gymnastics icon, with one writing: 'This can't be real.' Another added, 'had to check three times that this wasn't a parody account,' while a third noted: 'She get hacked???'

BBC News

30 minutes ago

• BBC News

'Crawford is not Canelo' - champions face off in Saudi

Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez told Terence Crawford he is a "great fighter but he's not Canelo" as the pair kicked off their media tour in Saudi pound-for-pound greats will fight on 13 September in Las Vegas for Alvarez's undisputed super-middleweight world is a bout being billed as the "fight of the century" but Alvarez dismissed the notion it could be a close contest with American Crawford stepping up from light-middleweight."He's a great fighter but he's not Canelo. I have the experience," Alvarez said at a news conference."They only focus on my power but I have more than that. This fight is going to be one of my best fights on my record."Alvarez, 34, may be the younger man by three years but having made his professional debut aged 15 and with 11 world titles, 27 world-title fights and 67 bouts in total under his belt, the Mexican has been cast as the man to pass the torch to Crawford."He's not going to beat me, don't worry about it," Alvarez answered at one stage, which drew a laugh and a smile from Crawford, who replied: "For sure them belts are coming home with me."Twenty-six bouts separate the rivals, but Crawford too has a record most fighters could only dream of with 19 consecutive world-title bout and a two-weight undisputed promised he would become the first male three-weight undisputed champion, in a classy nod to his American counterpart Claressa Shields, who has already achieved the feat in the women's was equally confident, describing himself as a "winner" and telling Crawford: "You don't look different.""I'm different. You going to see," Crawford said in reply. Netflix, UFC and the Las Vegas Raiders The fight will be staged at NFL side Las Vegas Raiders' Allegiant Stadium in Vegas, which holds 65,000 will also be the first event that UFC president Dana White's new boxing outfit will promote, a partnership with Saudi's Turki Alalshikh that almost collapsed before being revived in recent himself was given a seat at the top table while White was not chairman of the General Entertainment Authority has been the hand of power and driver of incredible Saudi investment in boxing in the last 18 months, but has not often been sat among the fighters at public outlined his demands to two of the greatest fighters of their generation in the opening remarks, slamming "Tom and Jerry" fights and insisting they must deliver him "smashing face".The beginning of a three-city press tour that includes Las Vegas and New York, gathered media only asked Alalshikh questions before he left the stage. It took almost 25 minutes before either fighter Arabia has invested huge sums of money into sport in an effort, the Kingdom say, to diversify their income revenues as a nation, but continue to face accusations of using sport as a vehicle for sportwashing and with Alalshikh set to embark on a new venture of super-fights broadcast on Netflix and creating a new promotional entity to do so, the Saudi investment into boxing shows little sign of slowing to the boxing and the news conference ended with the traditional music blared during it, with Alvarez being the first to look away in a emotionless who is being publicly backed by Alalshikh, said this is the fight he always wanted."I called Canelo out, he is the last great fighter amongst the era that surpassed us. The Floyd [Mayweather], the [Manny] Pacquiao, the [Oscar] De La Hoya. We both came up in that era and he got the chance to fight them."I wasn't able to get those mega fights, this is my mega fight. This is my moment."

Times

36 minutes ago

• Times

Florian Wirtz: Liverpool sign Bayer Leverkusen star on five-year deal

Florian Wirtz has revealed how Arne Slot's vision for Liverpool persuaded him to join the club for what could become a British-record transfer fee of £116million. The Germany playmaker admitted there was a time when he 'didn't expect Liverpool to be his next club', only for the power of the club's sales pitch to convince him to leave Bayer Leverkusen and reject interest from Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Wirtz also spoke of the profound effect that losing 4-0 at Anfield with Leverkusen in the Champions League last November had upon him as he described Liverpool as 'machines'. Liverpool have paid £100million for the attacking midfielder, with a further £16million dependent on bonuses, and their summer outlay will continue as they have agreed to sign the Bournemouth left back Milos Kerkez in a £40million deal. That will take the spending beyond £200million, of which Wirtz is the undoubted centrepiece, with the 22-year-old confident he will continue to develop under the tutelage of Slot. 'I just thought that it was the right point in my career to make the next step and, of course, I wanted to get to a club that is from the top three in the world, and Liverpool was one of them,' he said. 'The people say I'm a creative player and I hope I can bring this creativity to the team and also the joy on the pitch. I try to make assists, goals and run for the team and defend. I hope I can just make the team one step better. 'I just saw myself in the best hands in Liverpool. I was really convinced by the people here, by the idea, and everything the club offers me was really good. It was not that easy for me, for sure, because I am a German player. I play for the Germany national team. 'So it was not easy for me to decide, but the talks with the coach [Arne Slot] and Richard [Hughes, sporting director] and everybody were, from the very first time, so good and it just kept going like this. 'Every time I spoke to one of the [people from] the club I felt like, 'This is the place I want to be,' and so in the end I was really 100 per cent convinced I want to join Liverpool and it was the best choice. 'I can remember the first time, he [Slot] already showed me some scenes of how we want to play and how I could fit in the team. He was just telling me that I'm a player he really wants to have in his team and can bring the team a step forward. I just could imagine it [being] good to be in the team and to make it better because I have to make my performances every week — but I'm here for this. 'I was the first one in my family who was really into this club when they spoke to us or told us that they are interested in signing me. For sure, I didn't expect that Liverpool will be my next club but my family was supporting me and I didn't have to convince them about the club or something. 'I'm not coming [to] have fun here. I want to achieve something and give the fans what they deserve. Last season they won the Premier League so my goal is, for sure, to win it again and also to go further in the Champions League. I'm really ambitious.' Wirtz referenced the defeat Leverkusen endured last season and said he had watched both the title celebrations against Crystal Palace and the end-of-season parade and had been wowed by the joyous scenes. He had flown into Manchester airport on Thursday before beginning a medical that he completed on Friday. Wirtz will return for pre-season training on July 8. 'It was really tough to play here,' Wirtz continued, during an interview with Liverpool's website. 'I was still thinking about the game when I spoke to the coach or the other guys. It was an example [of] how it can be here. We lost 4-0 and we had to run so much and lost almost every duel. I just wanted to be part of this team. 'Inside me, I was feeling this quality of the team and also the size of the club. Inside me, I was always thinking about this game. I could remember how it was playing here.' Should the bonuses be triggered, the Wirtz transfer would outstrip the present British record of £115million, paid by Chelsea to Brighton & Hove Albion for Moisés Caicedo in 2023. Liverpool will look to finalise Kerkez's transfer next week and have already spent £29.5million on signing Jeremie Frimpong, who was Wirtz's team-mate at Leverkusen and taught him to speak English. A similar fee has been paid for the Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and £1.5million has been spent on another goalkeeper, Armin Pecsi of Puskas Akademia. With Jarell Quansah set to join Leverkusen in a deal worth about £35million when his participation with England in the European Under-21 Championship is over, there is also interest in Palace's Marc Guéhi. Bournemouth want at least £65m for PSG target Zabarnyi Bournemouth have valued Illia Zabarnyi at more than £65million in talks to sell the centre back to Paris Saint-Germain (Gary Jacob writes). The French club made an increased offer worth up to £55million for Zabarnyi, who signed a five-year contract last summer that does not have the type of release clause that allowed his defensive partner Dean Huijsen to join Real Madrid for £50million last month. PSG made a first offer of £40million plus £5million in add-ons for the 22-year-old. Zabarnyi cost £24million from Dynamo Kyiv in January 2023. West Ham United want about £25million for Nayef Aguerd after interest in the centre back from Juventus. Aguerd, 29, has two years left on his contract and was on loan at Real Sociedad last season. He joined from the French club Rennes for about £30million, including add-ons, in 2022. Southampton have rejected Atalanta's increased £12million offer for Kamaldeen Sulemana, the winger. The Atalanta head coach, Ivan Juric, stood down as Southampton manager in April after the club were relegated from the Premier League.