City Football Group (CFG) today launches Cityzens Giving For Recovery, a 12-month recovery campaign bringing together its nine clubs, thousands of staff, players and coaches, and millions of fans to help communities get back on their feet in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The world’s leading private owner and operator of football clubs, CFG owns New York City FC in the US, Premier League champions Manchester City FC in England, Melbourne City FC in Australia, J-League champions, Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Montevideo City Torque in Uruguay, Girona FC in Spain, Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China, Mumbai City FC in India and Lommel SK in Belgium.
In the wake of the pandemic, CFG has been supporting the emergency global COVID-19 response for the past three months, through almost £1,000,000 of donations, in-kind support and the loaning of facilities.
With the MLS season resuming on July 8 with the MLS is Back Tournament in Orlando, CFG is now aiming to deliver a minimum of another £1,000,000 of funding and support through its Cityzens Giving for Recovery initiative.
This will focus the Group’s donations, expertise, facilities, resources and voice, into making a positive difference to the recovery of its communities globally.
The recovery projects will focus on various themes including mental and physical health, education for vulnerable young people and tackling loneliness and isolation amongst other initiatives.
CFG will look to help facilitate the efforts through its clubs, staff, players, coaches and fans.
Many of the Group’s partners will be supporting the cause too, notably CFG’s principal partner of more than a decade, Etihad Airways.
Etihad will help kick-off the campaign by generously donating the space on the front of Man City’s shirt, which normally bears its company branding, to “Cityzens Giving for Recovery” for Wednesday night’s home match against Arsenal – our sister Club’s first game in more than three months.
In a further boost to the Cityzens Giving for Recovery drive, CFG will be matching pound for pound, all donations for the funding of nine recovery-linked projects near to each of its clubs; an extension of the traditional annual Cityzens Giving campaign, with funds raised in New York going towards NY Common Pantry.
NY Common Pantry support the recovery of families in South Bronx from the impact of Coronavirus by providing food resources and education on healthy eating. Just $1.27 provides one meal to support those at risk.
The Group is also enabling every member of staff across its network to spend a day volunteering, amounting to thousands of hours of giving.
Fans can get involved too, by donating to the projects, fundraising and submitting ideas to help their communities which CFG may be able to support.
Supporters can make donations and find out more in-depth information about the bold initiative by accessing our dedicated website www.cityzensgiving.org
Ferran Soriano, Chief Executive of City Football Group, said: “Front line workers around the world have heroically responded to the immediate threat of COVID-19. At CFG, we have been privileged to play our own small part in helping to address that immediate threat.
“Now is the time for us to look forward, committing to meeting our responsibility to help our communities recover.
“For the first time, we are harnessing the global resources of our nine clubs, our entire network of offices, staff, players and coaches to focus our efforts on recovery.
“This multi-faceted campaign is going to use our expertise, our facilities, our platform and our voice to help people and our communities to heal and recover.
“And we will do it together. We are calling on our global community of Cityzens to help us to give and to help as many people as we can to recover.”
*Up to a total £500,000 matched against all donations received on or by 31 August. Find out more.
