Manchester City owners City Football Group are close to completing a takeover of Italian side Palermo, the newly promoted Serie B side.
If the deal goes through, CFG will become owners of their 12th club but the first Italian side. President Dario Mirri is prepared to sell 80 per cent of his shares which would cost €6million (£5m).
They first expressed an interest in taking over the club back in April and have held meetings since then. Sky Sports Italia reported that CFG representatives flew to Milan this week after the side gained promotion to Serie B via the play-offs last week. The parties are said to have held meetings for two hours in Milan.
Talks are expected to still take place over the next few days but it is said to be the last set of paperwork left to sort out. With the right investment from one of the most wealthiest owners in the Premier League, the historic club could push to return back to the Italian top-flight after going bankrupt in 2019 - forced to start over from Serie D.
Following the promotion to Serie B, Mirri said: "The promotion of Palermo is a source of satisfaction for the whole world of Sicilian football. I hope it will be a stimulus so that the other large cities of the island can also resume their solid football traditions.
"The victory of Palermo is the victory of doing - working and designing, with effort and sacrifice, always pay off. Especially when making so many people happy makes everyone happy."
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The CFG had recently expressed interest in acquiring Dutch side NAC Breda, agreeing a deal worth €7m (£5.98m) back in March before it fell through however. Their attentions were then turned to the Italian side. At the time, the Dutch side's supporters reacted furiously to CFG's interest as they did not want the club to lose its identity or "become a factory for loan players".
City Group are owners of New York City, Melbourne City, Girona, Lommel in Belgium, Troyes in France, Montevideo City (Uruguay), Mumbai City (India), Sichuan Jiuniu (China) and a 20 per cent stake in Yokohama Marinos (Japan).
