Manchester City’s Commence Construction of New Training Complex
September 17, 2012
Manchester City have begun work on a £100million-plus training complex, unhealthy which will open prior to the start of the 2014-25 Premier League season.
The new 80-acre site facing the Etihad Stadium will be transformed with 16 football pitches, order a 7,000-capacity stadium for youth and reserve-team matches and a first-team training building.
The facilities will contain an indoor pitch, classrooms for 200 youth-team players, accommodation and staff offices.
The reigning English champions have provided 5.5 acres on the corner of the site to the local council, where a sixth form college will be built, as well as £3 million for public leisure facilities.
The club spend several months studying and researching an estimated 30 clubs, in various sports, from around the globe before conjuring up blueprints on the development, which has been named ‘City Football Academy’
Patrick Vieira, Manchester City’s Football Development Executive and Arsenal legend, said: “What I find really exciting is that before designing the facilities they have been to the football world, the basketball world and the NFL world, so a lot of hard work has been done.
That is why I believe it is the best project around in all sports.”
Having spent vast sums of money on players again during the transfer window, the project plans are part of the club’s attempt to become self-sustaining in the light of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules (FFP).
Uefa, who last week upheld prize money from 23 clubs, have excluded infrastructure, training facilities and youth development costs are excluded from the FFP equation, therefore City’s multi-million will not be factored by the time the rules are enforced from 2014.