The owners of Manchester City, City Football Group, have made an offer of 1 billion reais (£174.9m) for Brazilian top-flight outfit Bahia.
The purchase is part of an influx in funding in the Brazilian game, following the approval of a law that allowed clubs to seek outside investment. CFG have announced that their bid is part of an effort to buy a 90% stake in Bahia - two-time Brazilian champions - and, should it be accepted, they would then become the 13th club in their ever-growing footballing portfolio.
The bid for Bahia, based in Salvador, still needs approval from the club's members. The offer is well above the 650 million reais cited by club president Guilherme Bellintani to local media earlier this year when talks with CFG were first announced. The bid is also said to include an option to buy an additional 5% of the club.
CFG’s takeover of Manchester City was completed in 2008 before the group then went on to acquire the likes of New York City, Melbourne City, Montevideo City Torque, Girona, Sichuan Jiuniu, Mumbai City, Lommel SK and Troyes.
Their latest move also saw CFG complete a takeover of Italian outfit Palermo in the summer - CFG acquiring an 80% stake in the Serie B outfit.
Speaking at the time, Chief Executive Officer of the City Football Group Ferran Soriano said: "Palermo is a historic great club and has a strong and proud identity. We will work together with Dario Mirri to consolidate his extraordinary work, which aims - over the next few years - at Palermo's sustainable growth.
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“This is a very strong team. special and our role will be to add value to all the things that make it so special and to constantly improve performance on and off the pitch, leveraging our experience and expertise,”
"Italy is one of the most exciting and enthusiastic footballing countries in the world, with a rich history of national and club success, passionate fans and a host of fantastic players. We are delighted that the City Football Group has extended its presence in Italy ".
Should their bid for Bahia be accepted, then the club would be the latest in a line of Brazilian clubs to have had extra investment put into them over recent months.
Former Real Madrid and Brazil striker Ronaldo bought a controlling stake in boyhood club Cruzeiro as recently as December and that decision appears to have been a masterstroke with the Belo Horizonte outfit earning promotion back to the top-flight with seven games of the season still to be played.
Speaking to SporTV after securing Cruzeiro’s promotion was confirmed, he said: “This is the icing on our cake. We worked a lot to deserve this. We will celebrate for a few days and then think about next year.”
Meanwhile, Botafogo have also been the recipients of further investment following the introduction of the new law.
