ABU DHABI // The owner of Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, will watch his club for the first time during its friendly match with the UAE national team tomorrow. There had been speculation that Sheikh Mansour was going to travel to Manchester later this season to see the club contest a Premier League match at Eastlands, the home stadium. But he decided instead to watch his expensively assembled squad play at the refurbished Zayed Sports City.
Having sanctioned a radical overhaul of playing personnel and facilities by investing in excess of £250 million (Dh1.5bn) on new recruits in the past 14 months, Sheikh Mansour is still expected to watch a home match at some point. Details are yet to be disclosed. Garry Cook, the club's chief executive, said everyone associated with the club was looking forward to putting on a football feast for their local owner.
"It is an honour," he said. "It will be the first time that we will be playing in front of him. You always feel that the club represents Abu Dhabi; there is no better place to be playing than in Zayed Sports City and in front of our owner. It's going to be great and we are very excited about it." With hundreds of diehard City fans travelling from Manchester to Abu Dhabi, and hundreds more of the club's UAE-residing faithful also expected to be in the stands, Mr Cook believes Sheikh Mansour may even be treated to a chorus of the club's anthem.
"The fans are at the heart of everything the club does," he said. "The unconditional support they have shown us is amazing and to think that over 300 have made the journey to Abu Dhabi, we are blessed to have that type of support and commitment. I think we may even get a rendition of Blue Moon." Mr Cook added that officials had run into a hitch regarding plans to unfurl a mammoth banner thanking the sheikh. The banner, which reads "Manchester City thanks Sheikh Mansour", is a regular feature at Eastlands, but Cook said it had not arrived as safely as City's playing staff.
"We don't know exactly where the banner is," he said. Meanwhile, Manchester City's charity programme, City in the Community, partnered yesterday with the Zayed Higher Organisation for Humanitarian Care, Special Needs and Minors Affairs to bring a sports camp to more than 100 disabled students. "We worked together to include a programme for children with disabilities, so they could be more confident and become a bigger pillar in society," said Alex Williams, the executive manager of City.
Several coaches from the club were on hand to take the students through basic football drills. The camp included basketball and bocce, he said, and events catered for individual disabilities, similar to programmes held for special-needs children in England.
emegson@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Jen Gerson
