Giggs and Neville team for £20m launch of football-themed hotel and restaurants

July 5, 2013
Posted by Steven Tan | Source from dailymail.co.uk
Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville have launched a joint hospitality company – GG Hospitality – with ambitions of developing a worldwide football-themed hotel and restaurant empire.
 
According to 'Caterer and Hotelkeeper', Hotel Football is costing £20million as the players link up with two Singaporean businessmen - Kiam Ho and Andy Yun - as the major shareholders. Friends of the footballers as well as some fellow players are also reported to be involved in the project.
 

Empire: Gary Neville also plans to build 10-storey, 139-bed hotel with a rooftop football pitch near Old Trafford
 
It is unknown how much money that Neville and Giggs are committing themselves to the company GG Hospitality, which has been formulated and developed by Neville and Giggs themselves, will be the parent company of Café Football, with the first restaurant outlet to open its doors in the Westfield Centre in Stratford in November this year. It is expected to seat around 120 people and will be offering affordable food, with two courses available for £16-per-head.
 
Giggs said: 'We have lived and breathed every element of this for a considerable time now and have been involved in every detail, every step of the way. We've stayed in lots of hotels as footballers and often felt that we could do a better job.
 
'We have left nothing to chance and are working with some of the best people in the business to achieve our vision'.
 
The first hotel, called Hotel Football, is set to welcome guests in Manchester next year, and Giggs and Neville have set out plans to build a five-a-side football area on the roof of the hotel. Giggs also confirmed that there will be subtle hints of football visible around the hotel, although the pair will not go so far as to allow football shirts to adorn the walls.
 
The hotel is said to be targeting the three-to-four star market and will be charging between £80 and £150 per night.
 
In the long term, there are ambitions to expand the restaurants and hotels to other cities with a vibrant footballing identity, including Liverpool and Birmingham while the chain could also go global with football-mad Asia earmarked as a particularly fertile area for expansion.
 

Eco-home: Neville recently secured permission for a carbon-neutral house in the Lancashire countryside
  • Related keywords: Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville