As part of the “multi-platform” deal, Endemol will produce video in English and Arabic—City is owned by a hugely wealthy Abu Dhabi-based consortium that is keen to boost the club’s profile in the Middle East—while three or four other languages are planned by the end of the year. Endemol will also produce magazines. It marks the end of a year-three year deal with Swiss sports rights group Kentaro which launched the now defunct mcfctv.com and has deals with the Brazilian and Argentine national football associations.

Football will always attract a large and passionate audience online—but the problem for media companies is that football clubs themselves want to be the main destination for sports fans, especially abroad and they have the spending power most newspapers and online publishers could only dream of. Most Premier League clubs outside the “top four” big clubs and other Football League use Perform’s sports broadcast platform, which create’s a paid-for highlights and interviews minisite on a white label basis.