Man City owners face a fight with a fairytale at NAC Breda

Back in 2016 when Manchester City were searching for a reliable outpost to send developing talent, one of the big attractions of NAC Breda was the passionate fanbase. There are more competitive leagues than the Eredivisie, and certainly more competitive leagues than the Dutch second division, yet the challenge of playing in front of 20,000 passionate fans every week is one that is rare enough to be extremely valuable.

The irony will not have been lost on City bosses when those same supporters felt so strongly about City Football Group's (CFG) interest in buying their club that they engineered a banner to be unfurled at the Etihad bluntly telling the club to "stay out of our territory". More demonstrations are expected on Friday when NAC host Jong Ajax looking to climb up from ninth place in the Eerste Divisie.

At a time when geopolitics has collided with football to raise more questions about ownership, CFG have stumbled into a delicate situation. So why is there such hostility from what was seen as a friendly face? And what happens next?

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Things are, as is often the case, not as black and white as they may appear. The stunt outside the Etihad (and a few other CFG clubs) was designed to get attention and has done but does not fully reflect the temperature of the fanbase.

It is important to note that there are plenty of people happy to see CFG take ownership, and even those most opposed accepts that a change is needed. What's more, the club's prior relationship with City sees their group presented as a trusted option by the shareholders.

From a business point of view, CFG is obviously desirable. More and more organisations are coming