Mumbai, June 16 (IANS) City Football Group (CFG) on Tuesday introduced 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.
CFG is the world’s leading private owner and operator of football clubs. It is best known for its ownership of English Premier League Champions, Manchester City FC, and also comprises New York City FC in the US, 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.
CFG has been supporting the emergency COVID-19 response for the past three months, through almost £1,000,000 of donations, in-kind support and loaning of facilities.
As football all around the world prepares to restart, CFG is now aiming to deliver a minimum of another £1,000,000 of funding and support through Cityzens Giving for Recovery, which will focus the Group’s donations, expertise, facilities, resources and voice, on making a positive difference to the recovery of its communities globally.
CFG will act this through its clubs, its staff, its players, coaches and fans. In Mumbai, Cityzens Giving For Recovery through Mumbai City FC will be supporting the Oscar Foundation, a football for development non-profit dedicated to empowering children and youth in low-income communities in India. Headquartered in Mumbai, the Oscar Foundation has impacted the lives of 12,000+ children and youth over the last nine years, across Mumbai, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand.
With the Oscar Foundation, the aim is to build digital education centres so children can access online education — from schools and their young leaders — and address the risk for children when social distancing is implemented in schools. It is suggested that up to 60% of children in their communities will lose contact with face to face education as a result of the pandemic and help bridge this divide.
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.”
–IANS
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