Man City v Santiago City: Chilean minnows ignore PL champions legal demands

Chilean third-tier outfit Santiago City have never played a match, yet still find themselves in the midst of a bizarre legal dispute with the owners of reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.

The City Football Group (CFG) controls a host of clubs around the globe aside in addition to Pep Guardiola’s men, with teams in the United States, Australia, India, Japan, Spain, Uruguay, China, Belgium and France.

They haven’t, as of yet, ventured as far as Chile, though.

Apparently concerned that fans might confuse an upstart, lower-level South American side with the five-time Premier League winners, Man City’s owners fired a formal warning to Santiago officials over the striking resemblance between the clubs’ crests.

Per the Daily Mail, CFG sent a nine-page document to the Chilean minnows via local lawyers at the end of last month, complaining that the Santiago City badge heavily resembles Man City’s.

That paperwork, known as a cease and desist order, alleges ‘unauthorised use’ of Man City trademarks and design characteristics.

You can check out the two club crests below – and Man City chiefs undeniably have a point. Some might question whether they needed to go quite as far as to recruit Chilean legal representation, but here we are.

While Man City’s owners are clearly taking the matter very seriously, the same can’t be said about Santiago City.

Although the Chilean minnows did shut down their website in response to the legal claim, their official Twitter account is still active – together with the disputed crest as their profile picture.

On Wednesday evening, images of the Santiago squad in pre-season training were uploaded to the platform, with their players still wearing kit displaying the club badge.

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