The Football Association has rescheduled the Community Shield match between Manchester City and Arsenal after City fans threatened to boycott the fixture.
City will take on Arsenal in the Community Shield at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, 6 August.
The traditional curtain raiser of the new season was scheduled to kick-off at 5:30pm, but this drew backlash from City supporters due to difficulties in returning to Manchester by public transport immediately after the match.
Earlier this week, leading City fan group 1894 Group called on supporters to boycott the match and instead make donations to MCFC Fans’ Foodbank Support.
In three days City fans have already contributed over £5,000 to the cause, which will be donated to Manchester Central Foodbank.
On Tuesday, the FA confirmed that in response to the calls for a boycott, it had decided to bring kick off forward 90 minutes to 4:00pm.
An official statement read: “The decision to move the kick off time was taken following full consideration of the transport challenges for fans returning to Manchester after the match.”
However, supporters of Pep Guardiola’s side are still being encouraged to stay away from the game.
“We welcome the FA’s move to change the kick off time of the Community Shield to 4:00pm from the previously stated kick off time of 5:30pm,” a statement published by MCFC Fans’ Foodbank Support read.
“However, this is only a good first step and we do not believe that it is acceptable.
“Bringing it forward to 4:00pm does not meet the concerns of thousands of City fans who will still only get home extremely late on a Sunday night and still face many unnecessary travel challenges along the way.
“It is clear that the FA only changed this due to the negative press rather than because the needs of fans were important to the organisation.
“We are prepared to make a stand until the game is moved further to a time that demonstrates the FA truly has considered the needs of fans rather than treating matchgoing supporters as an afterthought, then working out the bare minimum as an attempt to fob us off.
“If fans work together and fight back, we can force governing bodies and others in positions of power to back down.”
Thanking fans of other cubs for their support, 1894 Group said in its own statement: “This is not just a Manchester City issue. Next year this could be two other northern clubs being asked to kick off at 5.30pm – or later still.”
The 2023 Community Shield will now take place at 4:00pm on Sunday, 6 August and will be broadcast live on ITV1.
City fans wishing to support the MCFCFFS appeal can donate via their JustGiving page.
