Fans and Club raise thousands for new football facilities | OneFootball

The Club's charity, City in the Community (CITC), along with fans and partners have come together to raise £180,000 to empower healthier lives through football.

The Healthy Goals initiative, which launched for the second time in May, aims to uplift the physical and mental health of young people by creating new community football spaces in Manchester.

For this year’s campaign, City Football Group matched donations pound-for-pound* to a limit of £90,000, which has now been reached thanks to the support of fans and partners in Greater Manchester and beyond.

Thanks to the success of this year’s campaign, CITC has regenerated multi-sports pitches at primary schools such as Ravensbury, St Wilfrid’s, Ashbury Meadow, Southern Cross and Holy Name.

To view highlights of the openings of these pitches, visit www.mancity.com/healthygoals

Commenting on the success of this year’s campaign, City in the Community CEO, Mike Geary, said: “Healthy Goals is an initiative that continues to make me proud due to the generosity of supporters and partners of City in the Community, their support is exactly what we need to give people in Manchester the opportunity to stay physically active.

“In this year’s campaign we have regenerated five pitches in different schools throughout Greater Manchester and they, along with the pitches that we built last year, will continue to go a long way towards empowering healthier lives with city youth through football.

“To see the growth and continued success of this campaign makes me extremely excited to see how far we can go in years to come.

“I would like to express my huge thanks and gratitude to everyone who donated towards the Healthy Goals campaign this year, as well as City Football Group for their continued support.”

VIEW SANDRA’S HEALTHY GOALS STORY HERE

As part of this year’s initiative, CITC followed a local youngster whose drawings inspired her school’s newly regenerated sports pitch.

Sandra, a Year Six pupil at St. Wilfrid’s Primary School, had her own centre circle design brought to life when City in the Community transformed their playground.

Commenting at the official opening, Sandra said: “When I got to see our new pitch for the first time, I felt really excited that my design was included and that everyone will be able to be play on it and look at it. I’m just so happy to see my name on it as well, I wanted to burst!

“I would like to thank City in the Community for including my drawing and helping me to be more brave generally.”

Sandra takes part in City in the Community sessions whilst at school, as part of the Premier League Primary Stars (PLPS) programme.

SUPPORT THE CHARITY THROUGH THE CITC PRIZE DRAW

Former Manchester City goal-keeper and later Head of CITC, Alex Williams, also surprised participants at Holy Name Primary School for a blue-ribbon cutting ceremony to open their newly regenerated multi-sports pitch.

Commenting on the day, Alex, said: “I think it is an absolutely brilliant project, it uses the power of football to engage with the youngsters to stay nice and fit and healthy and what a better way to do so.”

Fans can continue to support the charity’s work through the City in the Community Prize Draw.

Each month, fans around the world** can get their hands on signed player shirts, cash prizes and even matchday tickets through the CITC 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

City in the Community empowers healthier lives through football with city youth.

To find out more information, visit www.mancity.com/citc or follow @citcmancity on social media.

*Overall, City Football Group contributed a maximum of £90,000 (GBP) in total for all City Football Group affiliated charities participating in the campaign.

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