Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium renamed for Premier League clash with Brighton | OneFootball

The Etihad Stadium will be renamed for one game only, Manchester City have confirmed, as the club recognise their charitable commitments in the region.

The Premier League champions take immense pride in their commitment to charitable causes in the immediate area and further afield, often being credited for the remarkable regeneration of much of east Manchester.

Since the purchase of the club by Sheikh Mansour and his United Arab Emirates-based investment arm back in 2009, plenty of financial power has gone into the community in and around the Etihad Stadium, and the Etihad Campus.

Manchester City’s construction of a state-of-the-art training facility adjacent to their home stadium brought with it fresh life into a wasteland in the area, while there has been money put into local sports facilities and commitments to free sports sessions for local schools.

And the excellent work continuously pulled together by Manchester City’s official club charity, City in the Community has been further recognised by the wider organisation on Saturday, as the club dedicates their home clash with Brighton & Hove Albion to the charity.

As first reported by the Manchester Evening News, Manchester City are renaming the Etihad Stadium to mark the club’s annual charity weekend with Brighton & Hove Albion visiting the newly-branded ‘City in the Community Etihad Stadium’.

Pep Guardiola’s squad will also warm up in branded shirts before donating them, and the game will also see the return of the players depicted by local primary school children, as seen in previous campaigns across matchday programmes and social media assets.

The report also reveals that there has been a relaunch of the charity’s website and monthly prize draw, while a new auction includes Manchester City mascot spaces for an upcoming Manchester derby.

Speaking on Manchester City as a community and an organisation during his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Pep Guardiola told reporters, “It’s not just a football club.

“You are part of the area, the city, helping people with problems or no problems, being involved in not just a football club that scores and concedes, and for many years they are involved in many things. Being part of that is so nice.”

The 54-year-old continued, “In the toughest moments, all around the world in the Covid time, this club showed unbelievable things for the workers in the club and the community like no other club has done!”