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Two months ago, David Gill stated as fact that Manchester City will never be as big as Manchester United .

The former Old Trafford chief executive was speaking at an event to mark the 500th anniversary of Manchester Grammar School and the audience lapped up his rhetoric.

"I'm not being arrogant, but Manchester City will never be as big as Manchester United in Asia and certain markets," said Gill.

"Look at Liverpool, the club haven't won the league for so many years but they are very popular in Asia.

"The big teams with history and heritage - Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid - have that."

Across the city at the Etihad Stadium, one senior club executive smiled wryly and told me: "Mr Gill had better be careful - 'never' is an awfully long time."

They were smiling again in the corridors of power at the magnificent £200million City Football Academy yesterday when it was announced that owner Sheikh Mansour's ADUG had sold a 13 percent stake in the City Football Group that now owns clubs in New York, Melbourne and Yokohama as well as Manchester.

The price? A cool £265million - roughly the same amount that the Sheikh paid to buy City in 2009.

It means the Sheikh has recouped more than a quarter of the £1billion investment he made to transform City into one of football's major players.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

And, more importantly, with a stroke of a pen he has opened up untapped Chinese markets that United and the rest of football's major players are desperate to break into.

So much for Michel Platini's claim that Financial Fair Play isn't just a ploy to maintain the status quo.

The deal values the CFG at $3billion on the New York stock exchange, where United's share price currently has them at $3.05billion.

So, on paper at least, the gap between the Manchester clubs has closed significantly.

United, of course, cam still command massive sponsorship deals like the ones with adidas and Chevrolet that they estimate will see them become the first club to announce annual profits of more than £500million.

(Image: Reuters)

But City are no longer just Manchester's club. Or Abu Dhabi's, or New York's, or Melbourne's, or Yokohama's.

By adding a Chinese powerbase to their empire that will ensure this year's record £352million revenues are small change.

Expect a raft of huge sponsorship deals to start flooding in.

So what about the football?

Well City have finished above United in three of the last four seasons.

They are currently sat at the top of the Premier League and are already qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League.

So much for Sir Alex Ferguson's assessment when he was asked whether City would ever go into a derby match as favourites to win. "Not in my lifetime," was his answer.

City supporters have been notorious moaners down the decades, but you won't hear many complaints about the entertainment value of watching Sergio Aguero , David Silva, Kevin de Bruyne and Raheem Sterling.

That's why they will average over 50,000 at the Etihad this season and are ready to extend the stadium's capacity to more than 60,000.

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(Image: Alex Livesey)

City have always been well supported - even in the dark days of the old second division.

But their fanbase now goes well beyond the traditional blue heartlands of Ardwick, Gorton and Stockport.

Omar Berrada, the commercial director of City Football Marketing, outlined the worldwide scale of the club's support.

Berrada said that City now have 400million fans around the world, with 220million in Asia and 75million in China.

"About 97 percent of our fans are from outside the UK," he said. "The majority will probably never see the team play live.

"The stats tell you the sheer importance that Asia has for most, if not all, Premier League clubs.

"China is clearly very important for us as a group. We would like to develop our presence in many ways."

City's Academy is also starting to have a detrimental effect on United.

When the two rivals faces each other at youth level earlier this season, City won every game apart from one, which was drawn. The Under-14s triumphed 9-0.

It has been suggested that the Reds will refuse to play City at junior level because they feel their recruitment policy is over aggressive.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

But when players like Robin van Persie, Darren Fletcher and Phil Neville opted to send their sons to the Etihad campus, it's clear where the future lies.

In 2008, the suggestion that City could ever become serious rivals to United - on or off the pitch - would have brought a van full of men in white coats.

But City haven't just closed the gap on United, they have overtaken them in so many areas.

Perhaps David Gill needs to go back to school.