City manager Sven Goran Eriksson will visit Bangkok and Shanghai, along with City's China international Sun Jihai, as the club complete the signings of four new sponsorship and commercial deals.

The club can expect to make between £5million and £10million from the agreements, with the bulk of the interest coming from China and not Thaksin Shinawatra's homeland.

"We will be making four announcements next week, simultaneously in Bangkok, Shanghai and Manchester, regarding new partnership deals," added the club spokesman.

"There is immense interest in English football in the Far East, as well as City, and we would be aiming to crack the Far East, for want of a better word.

"These deals have come about because of where we are in the Premier League table, they are not things that would have happened in our position last season."

City will be setting up academies in the Far East and Eriksson will discuss bringing Thai and Chinese players to Eastlands for trials.