Equality, Diversity and Inclusion remains a hugely important pillar of Manchester City’s year-round work.
New initiatives ran alongside long-established schemes as the Club again worked with industry-leading organisations and colleagues across the business to continue to build an inclusive environment for its staff, fans and the wider community.
As part of the Club’s continued commitment to this area of work, it was awarded the advanced level of the Premier League Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Standard for the second time.
The Premier League’s independent panel strongly commended the leadership shown by the Club and its senior leaders in driving forward equality, diversity and inclusion.
This season, City collaborated with “Field of Vision” – a company that creates devices to enhance the experience of attending football games for blind and partially-sighted fans. The Club piloted Field of Vision’s sensory boards at the Etihad Stadium to allow fans with limited vision to monitor the ball’s movements on the pitch and track its location so they could keep up with the flow of the game.
Meanwhile, the Club’s audio description team celebrated 25 years of providing incredibly detailed live commentary. The service was available to both home and away fans at men’s, women’s and EDS games.
Building on the Club’s commitment to engaging staff through formal networks, the City & Proud LGBTQ+ network was launched in February, to provide a forum for staff to come together in the workplace.
Alongside this, the Club was proud to once again participate in Manchester Pride activities with a flag raising ceremony outside the Etihad Stadium attended by Club representatives, the Canal Street Blues supporter’s club and key figures from the LGBTQ+ community in Manchester.
Men’s first team player Kalvin Phillips also met with Canal Street Blues to find out more about the activities of the fan group and why Manchester Pride is such an important event in the calendar.
In addition, the Club made a donation to Pride Sports and Football vs Homophobia to support their ongoing work in Manchester to engage the LGBTQ+ community in football. A Pride flag – signed by members of the men’s and women’s first team squads – was also donated to the National Football Museum, as part of their exhibition on equality in sports.
A whole host of activities were delivered this season in celebration of International Women’s Day.
The Club created a series of content highlighting the lives of City players, how women have supported their careers and the impact players can have in terms of influencing and inspiring the next generation.
And, as part of the central theme of this year’s International Women’s Day #BreakTheBias, the Club’s charity, City in the Community, welcomed 90 young women to the City Football Academy for a multi-sports festival, followed by a speed-networking event with City’s senior women leaders from a range of departments.
A special Iftar event at the Etihad Stadium for Muslim fans and the community to come together and break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan was held for the second successive year, with more than 100 guests in attendance.
City also became the first team in the Premier League to appoint a Muslim Chaplain to conduct weekly Jummah prayer services for its employees.
Over the course of October’s Black History Month, young players Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Rico Lewis and Khiara Keating were given the opportunity to tell their stories to fans.
In a content piece created for the Club’s channels, Wilson-Esbrand and Lewis sat down to talk about their personal journeys, their inspirations at home and in the sporting world, while Keating talked of her aspirations to blaze a trail for people of colour and her personal experiences of being raised in Ardwick, next door to the City Football Academy and the Etihad Stadium.
The Club also took further steps to engage Manchester’s South Asian community, with approximately 1,200 South Asian young people attending the City Football Academy over the past season, providing them with fun footballing experiences to encourage their continued participation in the game.
