Manchester City FC are expected to reveal their plans for a state-of-the-art training facility which forms part of their deal with the Abu Dhabi airline Etihad tomorrow. City sent a team of specialists around the world for 18 months for a feasibility study from a variety of sports before drawing up their plans. It is anticipated that the plans will in part be influenced by Nike’s world headquarters.
Manchester City FC are expected to reveal their plans for a state-of-the-art training facility which forms part of their deal with the Abu Dhabi airline Etihad tomorrow. City sent a team of specialists around the world for 18 months for a feasibility study from a variety of sports before drawing up their plans. It is anticipated that the plans will in part be influenced by Nike’s world headquarters.
The 80-acre site across from the Etihad Stadium is ten times the size of City’s present training base at Carrington. Both the first team and the academy, currenty based at Platt Lane in Moss Side, will be relocated there. Etihad will also have some kind of base on the development, possibly a call centre.
Meanwhile Liverpool are the latest club to complain about the Etihad sponsorship, arguing that Uefa should rule on whether it is a ‘related’ deal which they maintain Uefa told them they had a robust process to deal with. Liverpool have pointed out that Etihad has fewer planes than Flybe and that there is no realistic benchmark against which the deal can be judged.
What we are seeing are leading clubs who consider that financial fair play would help them creating what is in effect a coalition of support for Uefa which might make it easier for the governing body to take action against clubs judged to have broken the rules. It’s not just on the pitch that hard tackles go in.