Football club gets keys to base at East Manchester Academy

On 21 October Garry Cook, chief executive of Manchester City Football Club was officially handed the keys to the Club’s new ‘City in the Community’ hub at the East Manchester Academy in Beswick.

As part of their 'City in the Community' scheme, the Club will provide two sessions a week of free after-school coaching for pupils at the new academy, located on Grey Mare Lane. In addition there will be free Community Soccer Schools for boys and girls aged between 6-14 years in the school holidays through-out the year open to both the local and wider community which will include two courses specifically for girls. This is part of MCFC's commitment to provide free access to football across Manchester.

As well as football, City in the Community coaches will also run free after-school sessions in badminton, table tennis and volley ball as part of their PL4Sport initiative.

The Club will also host three 'enterprise days' for every year, starting next year, where students have the opportunity to learn about business and enterprise using MCFC as a business model. They will also be organising free workshops to develop job skills to help students find their first step on the career ladder. 

The East Manchester Academy will also have access to the MCFC Junior Academy and Manchester City Ladies Football Club.
Garry Cook, chief executive of Manchester City Football Club said: "We are delighted to be in partnership with Guy and the team at the new East Manchester Academy. Our City in the Community staff will be working closely with the new Year 7 intake on a daily basis, and Manchester City Ladies FC and our Academy scholars will train here every week. We are very proud to take this next step with such an exciting school, confirming our commitment as a key neighbour to our local East Manchester community, as well as the Greater Manchester region."

Guy Hutchence, Principal of the East Manchester Academy said: "The students are going to benefit enormously from this partnership. We are very fortunate to have a premier league football club right on our doorstep and to have developed these formal ties is really exciting. The teams already look very promising with the boys getting terrific results, recently scoring 9-2, 10-1 and 5-0 and the girl's team have enjoyed consecutive 5-0 and 4-0 victories in their games which is equally fantastic. With regular coaching from these top coaches, I'm sure the teams will go from strength to strength. Sport is a vital part of the curriculum and as well as helping the children keep fit and healthy, teaches them some important life skills. What is fantastic about this initiative is that it's not just our students that will benefit. In the school holidays children from the wider community will be able to access first-class coaching on our brand new all-weather pitches."

For more details about East Manchester visit http://www.east-manchester.com/ and for more information on Manchester City Football Club's City in the Community scheme go to http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/City-in-the-community