The Group was founded in the summer of 2008, as Sheikh Mansour looked to take over Manchester City Football Club from the former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra[6] and signed off the deal on 1 September 2008,[7] with due diligence completed on 23 September the same year.[8]
Sulaiman Al-Fahim was the public face of ADUG during the initial phase of the takeover - a larger-than-life figure[9] often described as the "Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi".[10] On completion of the takeover, Al-Fahim generated considerable attention in the footballing world with promises of grandiose spending plans to capture the world's greatest footballing talents.[11] Although he did bring in the Brazilian Robinho from Real Madrid on the same day on which the takeover was agreed,[12] one week after ADUG took control of the club Al-Fahim was removed from his role[13] to be replaced by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who remains in position to the present day.
In 2011, Manchester City qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup, providing the club their first success in over three decades following ADUG's support.[14] In 2012, the club won the Premier League, their first league title in forty-four years.[15]
Following the success of the Manchester club, ADUG began investment into other football clubs. After founding the MLS side New York City[16] and purchasing the A-League franchise Melbourne Heart[17] (shortly afterwards renamed Melbourne City), it was deemed necessary to create a new infrastructure to manage the various worldwide footballing ventures, and to keep them separate from non-footballing business. For this purpose, City Football Group was created in 2014 to oversee all of the teams under their control,[18] acting as holding company not only to the football teams but to several businesses designed to market football services to the wider market.[19] In return, ADUG became the holding company for CFG.[18]
ADUG have diluted their shareholding the City Football Group on two occasions in 2015 and 2019 to the approximate value of £654 million.[20][21] As of 2020, they own 78% of the City Football Group. Since July 2021, CFG has been managed under Newton Investment and Development LLC, another company wholly owned by Sheikh Mansour.[22][23]
