Rinani Group Berhad announced that the financial consulting firm has acquired Kuala Lumpur City FC (KL City FC).
KL City FC will be added to the Rinani family, which consists of Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Berhad (MGRC), Bintai Kinden Corporation Berhad, Sarawak Consolidated Industries Berhad (SCIB) and Reneuco Berhad.
“We welcome KL City FC to the Rinani family and we look forward to KL City FC continuing to be a trailblazer, with the support of our fans.
“KL City FC, now an elite club, will keep pushing boundaries and continue to be a professionally managed football club with ‘football decisions’ being the core.
“Our acquisition of KL City FC is part of the mandatory privatisation process that the Malaysian Football League is enforcing on all state-owned football clubs as football in the country transforms to a more professionally run sports that benefit all stakeholders,” said Rinani director Azri Azerai.
KL City FC is a Malaysian professional football club based in Kuala Lumpur. Founded in 1974, the club was rated Asia’s second-best team in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup last year; champions of the 100-year-old Piala Malaysia in 2021 for the fourth time in the club’s history and winner of the Federal Territory Minister’s Trophy 2023 for the second time.
Kuala Lumpur FA (KLFA) president Khalid Abdul Samad said: “I welcome the news of Rinani taking a majority stake in KL City FC and becoming a joint partner together with KLFA of the club. We hope supporters of KL City FC will accept this change in ownership as private sector participation is vital to the future of Malaysian sports because entrepreneurs know best how to push for success and ensure viability.”
The privatisation of KL City FC is also in line with the directives from FIFA, football’s international governing body, and of the AFC, to have state-run football teams to be professionally ran, privately financed and independently owned.
KL City FC lifted the Federal Territory Minister’s Trophy after beating Perak FC 3-0 at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium in Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras on Feb 4, this year.
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