City Football Group: Goals US merges with Sofive to accumulate 9 five-a-side centres in the USA

Goals Soccer Centers (Goals US), a US network of 5-a-side football centres and a subsidiary of the investment holding company City Football Group (CFG), has merged with its competitor Sofive in order to create "a bi-coastal recreational soccer business with some of the world’s finest and most technologically advanced facilities," announced the owner of Manchester City FC (Premier League) on 25/05/2021. The new entity will thus have nine centres in the country (the four Goals US centres in California, plus five Sofive centres on the East Coast).

"Sofive will assume operational control of the newly combined company. Both the Goals and Sofive brands will continue to operate for the time being. The ambition is for the business to continue to grow and develop, particularly in the lead up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup (co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico), which is likely to encourage even greater participation in recreational and grassroots soccer," said CFG, which had announced a joint venture with Goals US in July 2017, before acquiring the entire US company in 2020.

"This merger…