Manchester City Annual Report 2019-20
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Perhaps more than at any other time in our history, this season we showed that we are much more than just a football club.

In 2019-20, as COVID-19 shut down first football and then the wider economy, we used our resources to become a source of support for our fans and the local community, and a provider of valuable infrastructure for the NHS as it battled the pandemic.


Early in the year as the impact of the pandemic began to be felt in the UK, we contacted all of our neighbouring residential groups, charities and youth organisations to find out what challenges they were facing and used this information to plan our responses. What we heard was that there were three overarching issues: access to educational and physical activity resources, feelings of isolation and lack of connectivity, and lack of food provisions at a time of shortages in shops.

Our outreach work in the first five months was quite naturally focussed on emergency response, addressing the immediate needs of our communities as they reacted to the crisis.

As those needs began to be addressed, we started to consider how we could help our communities to get back on their feet when the time was right, so we pivoted our delivery towards recovery – whether that be physical, emotional, financial or educational. To deliver this, we worked with our City Football Group sister clubs to establish ‘Cityzens Giving for Recovery’, a 12-month campaign that enabled us to co-ordinate our efforts to help our local communities to recover.

While many people take online access for granted, there were some who didn’t have access to the internet and weren’t able to keep up their learning. So, we created a specific fund to provide carers with WiFi, data, laptops and mobile phones. Not everyone had books at home, so we donated 12,000 reading books, including 5,000 donated by partners. Food banks were stretched, so we teamed up with Manchester United and donated a collective £100,000 to the Trussell Trust.

We distributed 9,000 bottles of hand hygiene products, 2,000 Easter Eggs and hundreds of household cleaning products. All this was made possible by working with partners such as the Premier League, WeLoveMCR Charity, Manchester City Council, National Literacy Trust, PUMA, Nestlé, Carex, Henkel and Music Magpie.

Education resource packs provided for children aged between 2 and 16, with six weeks’ worth of activities for them to complete during the summer holidays
Primary and secondary schools engaged with remote delivery. CITC provided Activity Books and other physical materials, and created new online activities and resources for children
Free reading books donated to children across the city, including one for every year 6 pupil across all of Manchester
Technology Fund made available for young carers, to distribute phones, laptops, tablets and WiFi and data packs
Hand hygiene products given to schools, charities, and families
“Thank you, City in the Community, for my laptop and for helping me stay connected. Now I can do my work over the holidays ready for Year 6. I really appreciate what you have given me.”
Jason, Manchester
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When the first matchday was called off, we donated all the food that would normally be consumed to local charities, and the flowers to local care homes.

Our players and staff also made good use of the time that would normally be spent on football and matchday-related activity. Our Under-15 players wrote to residents of local care homes. Supporter Services (who would normally be managing matchday requests) called more than 3,000 fans aged over 60 just to say hello and provide some company to support the well-being of our more vulnerable supporters. Sergio Agüero delivered a Spanish lesson with BBC Bitesize for children studying at home. The list goes on. Our Club partners also played their part: PUMA donated 2,500 items of training wear, Midea created an ‘At Home Challenge’, Nestlé donated food and TECNO supported a new Cityzens Giving initiative.

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With the Etihad Stadium temporarily quiet, we worked with the NHS to offer as much space as they needed for COVID-19-specific initiatives.

This arrangement was set up in a way that meant the work could continue even when matches (without fans) started again. More than 350 nurses received specific training on site, and facilities were made available to 26,000 health and social care staff. Following the launch of the COVID-19 testing centre at the Etihad Stadium, approximately 1,000 people were tested every day. The centre continued to operate throughout the summer and will remain open over the coming months. In addition, 6,000 children received immunisations they couldn’t access when schools were closed.

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City in the Community already works in almost every school in Manchester, meaning it was perfectly primed to make sure that young people could continue their education with us.

We quickly set up the infrastructure to deliver remote sessions for those who were still in the school building, and online sessions for those that weren’t. And then we made it all available on the Cityzens At Home Portal, so young people could access educational content, wherever in the country or in the world they were.

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Our global network stepped up too. Together with our City Football Group sister clubs, we created ‘Cityzens Giving for Recovery’.

All nine clubs came together to focus our donations, expertise, facilities, resources and voice on making a positive difference to the recovery of our communities. In Manchester, the monies raised will support thousands of young people aged 14-25 with mental health awareness activities, a vitally important challenge, especially in this period.

"Manchester's response to the unique set of challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak has been very much a team effort and the Club has made an active and supportive contribution on many fronts."
Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council

NHS
@ ETIHAD STADIUM

CITYZENS GIVING FOR RECOVERY

GLOBAL YOUNG LEADERS SUMMIT

NHS
@ ETIHAD STADIUM

After engaging with key organisations to fully understand the challenges being faced during the pandemic, Manchester City formalised a partnership with the NHS and Manchester City Council to transform the Etihad Campus and support the delivery of key services.

During lockdown, the Etihad Stadium was opened for the training of over 350 nurses, including those working in the Nightingale Hospital North West. In addition, the Stadium’s Commonwealth Suite became a hub for child immunisation programmes, ensuring 6,000 local children had access to the immunisations they needed that would otherwise have been available to them in school.

The wider Etihad Campus was also opened, with access to these new facilities offered to 26,000 healthcare staff. A rest, relaxation and exercise centre was created, providing a quiet space for staff working within Manchester’s hospitals and health services every day. A ‘click and collect’ shopping service was also established, ensuring that groceries and household supplies were readily available for the front-line workers who needed them.

A drive-through coronavirus testing facility was also set up, utilising one of the Club’s car parks. The centre increased the availability of tests for thousands of key workers with over 1,000 per day being carried out on site, and will remain in place until at least March 2021 should it be required.

"Whether it was facilitating the use of the Etihad Campus as a drive-through testing centre or helping support vulnerable people, Manchester City have really stepped up and demonstrated their commitment to the city."
Joanne Roney OBE, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council

CITYZENS GIVING FOR RECOVERY

In June 2020, we announced Cityzens Giving for Recovery, a 12-month campaign bringing together all (then) nine City Football Group (CFG) clubs to focus our donations, expertise, facilities, resources and voice on making a positive difference to the recovery of our communities.

In an ordinary year, fans vote on how to support different projects using football to address various social issues. This year is the first time that the campaign has been a collective effort to address one common cause; recovery from COVID-19.

We committed to match donations pound-for-pound on our crowdfunding platforms to support nine recovery-linked projects in Manchester and near each of our CFG sister-clubs.* We also committed to offer the chance for every staff member to spend a day volunteering over the next year, and will encourage fans to get involved too, by donating, fundraising and proposing projects for us to support.

The fundraising started well with the support of Etihad Airways, which donated its front-of-shirt branding to Cityzens Giving for Recovery. Further funds were raised when we auctioned the shirts online, and from the sale of 10,000 face coverings which alone raised £50,000.

* Up to a total £500,000 matched against all donations received on or by 30 September 2020

“This support has enabled us to launch an inspiring new project that will use football to improve the mental health of thousands of young people right across Manchester. We’re so thankful for the support of the fans and the Club.”
Martin, Community Outreach Manager, Manchester

GLOBAL YOUNG LEADERS SUMMIT

While COVID-19 prevented the sixth annual Young Leaders Summit, presented by Etihad Airways, from taking place as planned at the City Football Academy, we were still able to bring together 250 Young Leaders from 23 cities around the world for a week of digitally-delivered training sessions with City in the Community coaches in Manchester, Melbourne and New York.

With support from Cisco, our Official Technology Partner, the digital Summit used its Webex platform to enable the Young Leaders to connect remotely, participate in valuable discussions and engage in lively collaboration. Training content was adapted to the global situation, covering topics such as leadership in a crisis, adapting community football for social distancing, delivering impact remotely and helping promote COVID-19 recovery through the power of football.

Participants heard from inspirational speakers from the world of sport, including Micah Richards, Karen Bardsley, Britain’s most successful Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE, Wimbledon tennis champion Marion Bartoli and sport and television presenter Seema Jaswal. PUMA Ambassador Tommie Smith, the Olympian famous for his Black Power salute protesting racial injustice in the United States from the medal podium after winning the 200-metre event at the 1968 Olympics, also joined the panel of guests.

The virtual summit was a success, with 97% of Young Leaders reporting now having new ideas and knowledge on how to adapt their community football programmes in response to the challenges of COVID-19.

“I felt inspired listening to the speakers share their experiences on leadership. It has helped me understand how I can lead and inspire participants in my community.”
Harsimar, Young Leader, Kuala Lumpur