It's a similar set-up to Man City's New York soccer club (80% owned by Man City and 20% owned and run locally by the Yankees). Interesting to see if the Man City owners also eventually change Heart's colours to their sky blue. New York City FC will have Man City's colours.
Wouldn't changing the Heart's colours to Man City's colours clash with SydneyFC?
It doesn't really matter in Soccer as it's quite common for clubs around the world in the same comp. to share the same colours. In the EPL, West Ham and Aston Villa are both claret and blue.
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Melbourne Heart could be set for a complete facelift during the off-season, with Football Federation Australia indicating it would be prepared to discuss a rebranding of the club with its new owner, Manchester City.
Fairfax Media understands that Australia's governing body is open to the possibility of Melbourne Heart changing its colours as well as its logo and name.
After purchasing a controlling 80 per cent stake in Melbourne Heart, Manchester City has already made moves to rename the club ''Melbourne City'', as well as change the club's logo and colours to predominantly sky blue.
There will be no changes to Melbourne Heart's identity for the remainder of the season, but a group called MHFC Holdings Pty Ltd registered a trademark named ''Melbourne City Football Club'' on January 16.
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It's also expected that the new owners are hoping to change the Heart's colours to sky blue in accordance with the parent club, Manchester City, as part of its plans to establish franchises across the globe. Manchester City has also founded a team in the US, New York City FC.
Any changes for Heart would have to be signed off by the FFA.
A spokesman for the FFA told Fairfax Media that it might take into account potential complaints from Sydney FC regarding Heart changing its playing strip to sky blue, but there was no reason the A-League could not have two teams using the same colour combination.
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/blue-skies-ahead-for-melbourne-heart-in-manchester-cityled-future-20140124-31ec0.html