Esporte Clube Bahia

Bahia
Full nameEsporte Clube Bahia
Nickname(s)Tricolor
Bahiaço (mix of Bahia and aço, steel)
Baêa
Maior do Nordeste (Biggest of Northeast)
Esquadrão de aço (Steel squadron)
Founded1 January 1931 (1931-01-01)
GroundArena Fonte Nova
Capacity50,025
SAF OwnerCity Football Group (90%)
PresidentEmerson Ferretti[1]
Head coachRogério Ceni
LeagueCampeonato Brasileiro Série A
Campeonato Baiano
2023
2023
Série A, 16th of 20
Baiano, 1st of 10 (champions)
WebsiteClub website
Current season
Clubs owned by CFG
Listed in order of acquisition/foundation.
Bold indicates the club was founded by CFG.
* indicates the club was acquired by CFG.
§ indicates the club is co-owned.
2008Manchester City F.C.*
2009–2012
2013New York City FC§
2014Melbourne City FC*
Yokohama F. Marinos*§
2015–2016
2017Montevideo City Torque*
Girona FC*§
2018
2019Shenzhen Peng City F.C.*§
Mumbai City FC*§
2020Lommel S.K.*
ES Troyes AC*
2021
2022Palermo F.C.*§
2023Bahia*§

Esporte Clube Bahia (Portuguese pronunciation: [isˈpɔʁtʃi ˈklubi baˈi.ɐ]) is a Brazilian professional football club, based in Salvador, capital city of the Brazilian state of Bahia. The club competes in the Campeonato Baiano, Bahia's state league, and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, highest division of Brazilian football league system.

Bahia has won the Brasileirão title twice: in the 1959 season, defeating the Santos' Santásticos which contained figures such as Gilmar, Mauro, Mengálvio, Coutinho, Pepe and Pelé, in the finals and in the 1988 season Bahia edged Internacional. Bahia has only appeared in the Copa Libertadores three times, reaching the quarterfinals in 1989, Bahia's best-ever performance. After 22 years out of international competition, Bahia returned in 2012 when they qualified for the Copa Sul-Americana, and seven more times, the last in 2021. The club has also won their state title a record 50 times. The club also has four titles in the Copa do Nordeste, in: 2001, 2002, 2017, 2021.

Bahia had played its home games with 66,080 people capacity Estádio Fonte Nova since 1951 but after a section of the stadium collapsed in 2007, the Tricolor played at the Estádio de Pituaçu. With the reopening of the Fonte Nova stadium in 2013 as the Arena Fonte Nova, a modern arena built for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Bahia resumed playing its matches there. The club's home uniform consists of white shirts with blue shorts and red socks. It has a fierce long-standing rivalry with Vitória, known as Ba-Vi.

In December 2022, it was announced that City Football Group, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi United Group, had bought a majority stake of Bahia's SAF, after the takeover was approved in a voting session between club members.[2][3] The acquisition was completed in May 2023, as CFG officially acquired 90% of the club's shares.[4][5][6]

  1. ^ "Emerson Ferretti". Esporte Clube Bahia. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Nota Oficial". 3 December 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Sócios do Bahia aprovam a venda de 90% da SAF ao Grupo City". ge (in Brazilian Portuguese). 3 December 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  4. ^ Alencar, Mauricio (4 May 2023). "Man City's parent group buys Brazilian side EC Bahia for £158m". The Athletic. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  5. ^ Machaddo, Rafael (4 May 2023). "Agora é oficial! - Notícias Esporte Clube Bahia". Esporte Clube Bahia (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  6. ^ Carneiro, Raphael; Melo, Ruan; Lemos, Tiago (4 May 2023). "Bahia conclui venda da SAF para o City, e CEO garante: "Vai ser o segundo maior clube do grupo"". ge (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 5 May 2023.

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