The Human Side Of Manchester City

Since 2008, when Manchester City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group and embarked on a £500M spending spree bringing some of the best talent from the global footballing community to East Manchester, they have been vilified and castigated from all quarters for destroying football, blamed for England's poor showing at the World Cup and generally have been relegated from everyone's second favourite team to the most hated team on the planet.

This is all a little bit over the top, with most of the criticism emanating from a level of jealousy that it's City which has had the ability to spend almost a limitless pot of money, rather than say Everton or Liverpool. 

Let's not dwell on the fact that at the end of the recent England friendly match with Hungary at Wembley, City had four players on the pitch (if you include new acquisition James Milner), more than any other Premier League team. Destroying English football or the future of English football?

No, let's step back from Mancini's team building and look behind the scenes at what the club has been able to achieve for various charities and less well off communities that they have come into contact with, during their global rise to prominence.

In the UK, City has the premier community scheme within football, with their multi award winning City in the Community programme constantly and consistently bringing hope, engagement and opportunity to schools, organisations and charities across the North West of England.

During City's pre-season tour to the US this summer, it wasn't the results on the field that took centre stage; it was the community work off it that left the most lasting example of what Manchester City are all about.

The Principal of the PS 72 Lexington Academy in Spanish Harlem; Mr. Hernandez, was close to tears as he praised City's CEO; Gary Cook, for working with the City Soccer Initiative and the UAE Embassy to install a synthetic soccer pitch on the roof of their six-story building in an area where previously kids had to travel miles to find a pitch to play on.

During their time in New York, City also opened a soccer school in conjunction with Downtown United Soccer Club, bringing their coaching expertise to the local community.

Recently City flew out to Romania to play their Europa Cup qualifying match against FC Timisoara. Normally teams fly in and out of various cities across Europe to fulfil these matches without venturing out into the community however City invited a local Romanian cancer charity; Little People, to join them for a training session, giving kids with this horrible disease a positive and a once in a lifetime experience. 

City's goal is of course to win the Premier League, followed by the Champions League and then maintain a global footballing dominance that Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester United have previously enjoyed.

Along the way though, they want to create opportunities and lasting legacies for the under-priviledged communities that they come into contact with. They may fuel petty jealousies for the amount of money they have to spend but ultimately this is still a club with a heart, a club within the community both in Manchester and further afield. That, alone deserves respect.