It may take a while to catch up with their Red counterparts in terms of global fanbase, but Manchester City are doing all they can to tap into new markets.
The club have today announced that they are expanding their global online presence by launching ten new international websites – meaning they can now reach 80% of the world’s connected population.
This means City will now have the broadest multilingual website offering in football as supporters from more than 160 countries will be able to access the club’s content in their own language.
Speaking to the club website, Manchester City CEO, Ferran Soriano, said: “Manchester City’s popularity and global fan base is growing at a fast pace.
“We want to talk to our fans and friends in their own language to engage with them in new ways. We are very proud of this initiative.”
The club already has an official English site, as well as Arabic and Mandarin Chinese versions.
However the launch of the new sites means fans will be able to view content in Traditional Chinese, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.
Fans connecting from overseas will be directed automatically to the native language website of their country.
Diego Gigliani, Director of Marketing, Media & Fan Development for City, added: “With the launch of our new multilingual sites, we are creating an online home for all our international fans.
“We hope that, by reading news and watching videos direct from the official source and in their native language, they will feel closer to the club they love.”
Picture courtesy of Christopher Cotrell, with thanks.
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