City in the Community: 2023/24 event highlights | OneFootball

Manchester City’s story began in 1880 when the Connell family in Gorton harnessed the power of football to support their local community.

Today, the club’s charity, City in the Community (CITC), with support from passionate fans, consistently support the community by empowering healthier lives with city youth through football.

The 2023/24 season saw City in the Community engage with fans through various events and initiatives.

Here are just some highlights from last season…

HEALTHY GOALS

The Healthy Goals initiative forms part of City in the Community’s commitment to creating safe, inclusive spaces for people to play.

In June 2023, the charity officially opened two new purpose-built recreational areas located at existing parks in Manchester – Scotland Hall Road and Ladybarn Park.

Thanks to the success of last year’s campaign along with the support of the fans, City in the Community has regenerated multi-sports pitches at Ravensbury and St Wilfrid’s – both primary schools where the charity delivers its programmes.

CITC will also open three more regenerated pitches, located at Ashbury Meadow, Southern Cross and Holy Name.

As part of the celebrations, the charity has announced the launch of a second fundraising window for 2024, enabling the expansion of its existing strategy to empower healthier lives with city youth through football.

Manchester City is once again bolstering the Healthy Goals initiative by matching all donations made before the fundraising window closes in September 2024, pound-for-pound*.

For more information, visit www.mancity.com/healthygoals.

CITC PRIZE DRAW

One of the ways in which supporters can contribute to the Healthy Goals campaign, and City in the Community in general is through the CITC Prize Draw.

Each month, fans around the world* can get their hands on signed player shirts, cash prizes and much more through the City in the Community Prize Draw. It runs each month, and you can enter for just £5  a ticket.

Supporters can enter on a one-off basis or they can sign up to a direct debit, meaning they enter the draw monthly automatically. Fans have until the 20th of each month at 23:59 GMT to enter!

Every penny raised goes towards sustaining the charity’s programmes, which place physical and mental wellbeing at their core, whilst also creating healthy futures and healthy communities.

To take part in the prize draw, or to find out more, visit: www.mancity.com/citcprizedraw

All winners will also be notified by email. Winners who have entered via postal entry will be notified by post if they do not include an email address with their entry.

For any further queries, please email citc@mancity.com.

EVENTS WITH KEVIN DE BRUYNE AND STEPH HOUGHTON

The 2023/24 season for CITC also brought the first ever player exclusive events for supporters to attend and enjoy Q&A sessions, raffles, and more activities.

Each night provided an unforgettable experience in extremely exclusive settings.

The two events of note were ‘An Evening with Kevin De Bruyne’, and ‘An Afternoon with Steph Houghton’.

Each event provided the opportunity to hear exclusively from each club icon, as they discussed the many famous moments from their Manchester City careers.

In addition, each event also included raffles, auctions and quizzes which provided the opportunity for fans to win some exclusive club and player prizes.

BLUES ON THE GREEN

CITC also hosted another successful edition of Blues on the Green on 17 April.

The day started on a sunny morning as supporters, partners, staff and friends of CITC came together at Mottram Hall Golf Club to help raise funds for the charity.

Several teams made their way around the course, before enjoying a range of food and drink, along with the opportunity to further support CITC through raffles, auctions and ‘Beat the Pro’ challenges.

The charity will also be hosting a second Blues on the Green event on Thursday, 22 August at the same venue of Mottram Hall Golf Club.

Entry pricing per team of four in August is £999.

If you would be interested in entering a team for either day, then all you need to do is send an email expressing your interest to citcevents@cityfootball.com at the soonest opportunity.

COMMUNITY MATCHDAY

During City’s 5-1 Premier League win over Luton Town on Saturday 14 April, the Club celebrated its charity in a number of ways.

Prior to the day, CITC participants were tasked with drawing Manchester City players for the matchday graphics, with ten young people winning a special experience.

The once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for local school children included mascot spaces, taking part in a team photo on the pitch before kick-off and announcing the players off the bus on the blue carpet.

Following the game, one participant was even able to interview player of the match, Mateo Kovacic. Check out the interview with Mateo HERE.

Elsewhere, the Etihad came come alive with charity branding ahead of kick-off, including a centre circle displayed by community coaches and a large banner in the family stand, to help raise awareness of City in the Community’s identity and purpose.

The City squad also showed their support by wearing City in the Community branded t-shirts during the pre-match warm-up.

To help further raise awareness of the day, City manager, Pep Guardiola, also sported a City in the Community branded top during his post-match press conference.

Commenting on the initiatives and events throughout the season, CEO of City in the Community, Michael Geary, said: “The 2023/24 season was a very exciting and successful campaign, for the Club and for City in the Community.

“It has been amazing to see so many of our staff, supporters, partners and participants come together to create such a wide variety of brilliant moments.

“CITC have had such a great presence over the last year whether that be online, at in-person events, or even matchdays at the Etihad Stadium, and we have so many people to thank for that.

“I’d like to express our sincere thanks to Manchester City Football Club for supporting our charity and its participants throughout the season, we look forward to creating more unforgettable moments going into the next one.”

To keep up to date with City in the Community, follow the charity across social media using @citcmancity.

For more information, please visit www.mancity.com/CITC or email citc@cityfootball.com.

*Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, Qatar, Lebanon, and North Korea are the only excluded countries from the prize draw.