Manchester City’s parent company, City Football Group (CFG), has struck a deal with media behemoth Sony Pictures Television (SPT) to develop scripted and non-fiction television projects related to CFG as well as football-themed productions.

The collaborative production slate, which will also cover children’s content, will be headed by Ged Doherty (who founded Raindog Films in 2012 with Colin Firth) and will utilise CFG’s own production unit, City Studios as well as accessing football talent.

Projects developed as part of the collaboration will include stories related directly to CFG and its clubs and players, as well as the creation of projects inspired by football, or where football is the central theme or plotline. As well as scripted and unscripted series, projects may also include one-off documentaries, animated projects, or children’s programming.

Established in 2013, CFG has ownership of or partnership in twelve football clubs around the world, including in New York, Australia and India. It also owns football clubs, academies, technical support and marketing companies.

Football-themed shows are increasingly popular in the UK content space, with Man City having been the first football club to appear on Amazon’s All or nothing documentary in 2018, and the first Premier League club to produce an in-house documentary and conclude a distribution deal with Netflix earlier this year, with Together: Treble Winners.

Wrexham AFC’s fortunes under owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have been documented in three series of FX’s Welcome to Wrexham with another having been recently greenlit.

Commenting on the launch of the strategic collaboration, CFG CEO Ferran Soriano, said: “We are incredibly excited to be collaborating with Sony Pictures Television in this joint initiative.

“City Football Group is already a global entertainment company, and this initiative builds on our long-standing track record of innovation in the content space and the growth of City Studios in the last years. We will now take an even more dynamic approach to content production, and we are already developing several scripted and nonfiction series that will delight audiences globally.

“Bringing together the expertise of both CFG and SPT will enable us to create brilliant shows and remain at the forefront of football-led content production”.

Wayne Garvie, president, international production, Sony Pictures Television, added: “Football is the great global game, no other sport produces so many heroes, tears and laughter, joy and heartbreak as football.

“The basics are always the same: 22 players, two goals, one ball, but the game always evolves and over the last decade City Football Group have become an unprecedented innovator and global leader.

“Our aim is to be part of the next evolution of the game, creating a new generation of innovative football-based entertainment to thrill the world.”