Manchester City CEO promises good football as Heart to become the 'noisy neighbours'

MANCHESTER City CEO Ferran Soriano says good football is crucial, with Heart to become Victory's 'noisy neighbours'.

MANCHESTER City chief executive Ferran Soriano has promised that Melbourne Heart will pursue playing good football as the surest route to establishing a successful identity, even if initially it comes at the expense of results.

Revealing why City had chosen to invest millions in Australia, Soriano predicted that Heart would become "noisy neighbours" to Melbourne Victory - the patronising label Manchester United applied to City when they began to challenge their cross-city rivals.

'CODE WARS WILL BE IRRELEVANT' - READ SIMON HILL'S TAKE

City's takeover of Heart was completed this morning, with Soriano keen to sketch out how the A-League entity would be refashioned to match the identity of its mother club and also New York City FC, the parallel MLS venture.

News_Rich_Media: Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour is rarely seen at the Etihad Stadium, but his influence over the club has become evident on the pitch.

TS: Heart have been criticised for not carving out a distinctive enough identity, other than being "not" Victory. How can you counter that?

FS: I can say now that we will work very hard to play good football. Everything starts and finishes with that, and if we are able to play good football then we will win and attract fans and develop an identity.

In football, there's little space for marketing tricks - it's about playing good football. People will come to the stadium if we do and entertain them. The whole idea, in Manchester, New York and here, is entertaining people.

To date we have scored 106 goals in the season in England, this is what we want. Here, it might take more or less time, but it's important - we don't want to win and then play good football. We want to play good football and if then takes a bit longer to be successful, that's fine, because we want to get to the place we are in England right now.

TS: Why have you chosen Australia?

FS: We were looking for places in the world where there's potential for football and the fans love it, but also and equally important, where there is a league that is well organised, with some history. We found both of those things here.

You can compare it with the US, there is growth and a league that is well managed. There are other places in the world where the growth potential might be higher, but the league is not developed enough.

News_Rich_Media: Melbourne Heart's A-League rivals Brisbane Roar are all too happy to see the positives of foreign investment in Australian football, following the struggling club's takeover by Manchester City.

TS: What does Australian football get out of it?

FS: We think that by doing all this, we create a platform for Australian football to develop and flourish. We will give them [players] coaching methodology, know-how and experience so they can maybe develop.

We're very convinced we can do this, for instance by putting our experience together in apps, so a coach of ours in Melbourne gets access to the same knowledge as in Manchester.

TS: What does the sale mean for Melbourne Victory, hitherto seen as the best-run club in the league?

FS: For them, maybe it's the same as for Manchester United. They were saying they had some noisy neighbours ... But at the end of the day, for the league and in this case for Victory, to have a strong local rivalry is a good idea.

Maybe also, when you have a talent here who leaves immediately to play for example in the Championship, in the second division in England, then he has a chance to stay here and play seriously for a bit more, then maybe make the jump to the premier league directly. I think having good teams here is very good for Australian players but the market has to be open.