Work is "set to begin" on EPL club Manchester City's new City Football Academy training complex, and the development will "open in time for the 2014-15 season," according to Richard Jolly of the London TELEGRAPH. Cost of the development is estimated to be more than US$162M. An 80-acre site opposite the club's Etihad Stadium will be "transformed from industrial wasteland into an academy with 16 football pitches, a 7,000-capacity stadium for youth and reserve-team matches and a first-team training building." Man City has "given 5.5 acres on the corner of the site to the local council, where a sixth form college will be built." The club also has donated US$4.9M for "local leisure facilities, which is earmarked for a swimming pool." The new facilities will include "an indoor pitch, classrooms for 200 youth-team players, accommodation and staff offices" (London TELEGRAPH, 9/14). In London, James Ducker writes the City Football Academy will be a "monument to [Man City Owner] Sheikh Mansour's plan to make City a pre-eminent force in world football while regenerating the flatlands of east Manchester in the process." A giant footbridge will "connect the Etihad Stadium to the site, which will be heavily powered by renewable energy sources and involve the plantation of 2,000 trees that will transform the existing harsh environment" (LONDON TIMES, 9/14). Also in London, Ian Herbert notes contractors BAM "have been engaged" for the development (London INDEPENDENT, 9/14).
