Sport

Manchester Futsal have qualified for the Champions League for the first time ever

With Manchester as one of this year's host cities, they're hoping to draw big crowds and help grow the sport even further.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 22nd July 2024

Following a year where our region dominated the domestic football scene once again, it should not be overlooked that Manchester Futsal Club (MFC) also quietly qualified for the Champions League for the first time ever.

Long misunderstood as mainly a feeder sport for footballing talent, futsal as its own discipline has come on leaps and bounds over the past decade or so, with over 60 million people now playing worldwide.

Greater Manchester boasted not only being home to the 23/24 Premier League champions, FA Cup and Women’s FA Cup winners in Manchester City and Man United, as well as League Two Champions Stockport County, but also another treble-winning team in their own right.

Being crowned National Futsal League champions alongside winning the League Cup and the Grand Final last month, MFC rightly earned Club of the Year by the FA and will now be competing in the European competition for the first time in their 18-year history. Nothing short of huge.

Better still, with Manchester helping host this year’s tournament from their home ground at the National Cycling Centre not too far from the Etihad Campus, they’re hoping to draw in bigger crowds than ever.

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With the Group D preliminary rounds set to take place between 22-25 August, Manchester Futsal Club are set to take on Tigers Roermond (Dutch Champions), Istanbul Sisli SK (Turkish Champions) and FC Yerevan (Armenian Champions), who also hosted last year’s final.

Mallorca Palma Futsal won back-to-back UEFA Futsal Champions Leagues last season after winning the title on debut in 2022/23 when they also served as hosts.

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Here’s hoping for similar good fortune when we welcome the other three European clubs next month.

Co-founder and CEO, Simon Wright, said of the team’s impressive progress thus far: “It’s been a pretty phenomenal season for the Senior Men’s team […] It’s been a direct outcome of years of hard work and persistence to deliver these fantastic achievements for the players and coaching staff.

Credit: Supplied

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“Qualification for the club into the UEFA Futsal Champions League is our reward now. We are now entering the elite competition for our sport so we’re incredibly proud to be representing English Futsal and the City of Manchester. It’s a big step but we’re ready to face that challenge head-on, we just have to focus on the preparation now and be ready to go come 22nd August.”

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With Manchester Football Club capable of hosting 3,500 fans over at Sportcity, the run of games which kicks off on Thursday and runs until Sunday could see huge attendances pile into the arena over the course of the four days.

Futsal also happens to still be one of the most affordable ways to watch live sport in the region too, with individual tickets for Champions League fixtures starting from just a tenner for adults. Alternatively, a pass for the entire preliminary round will only set you back £25 for adults, £12.50 for students and a mere fiver for under 16s.

Tickets for Manchester Futsal Club’s Champions League fixtures are available now and you can grab yours HERE.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Manchester Futsal (supplied)

Sport

Manchester City reveal trailer for upcoming Together: 4-In-A-Row documentary

Danny Jones Danny Jones Manchester City four in a row documentary

Man City have revealed the first trailer for their new Together: 4-In-A-Row documentary, charting the course of their record-breaking four consecutive Premier League titles.

The follow-up to the Together: Treble Winners series, City‘s highly-anticipated documentary dropped earlier this year following their historic 2023/23 season, the movie will follow the same concept and relive the Manchester club’s latest unprecedented feat from 20/21 onwards.

While the previous TV outing was picked up by Netflix, the latest instalment is set to arrive at the end of this month exclusively on CITY+.

You can see the trailer for Together: 4-In-A-Row down below:

The new Man City documentary will feature exclusive interviews with manager extraordinaire, Pep Guardiola, Ballon d’Or winner and Champions League-winning goalscorer Rodri, club captain Kyle Walker and many more.

There will also be footage including soon-to-depart Director of Football, Txiki Begiristain, as well as the City Football Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Ferran Soriano.

Swapping the series format for a feature-length film this time, this is arguably CITY+‘s biggest release to date, with the content subscription service typically offering full match replays, youth academy coverage, as well as smaller documentaries and podcasts.

The streaming service (accessible via the website, Man City app and smart TVs) was only started back in 2024 but now four years later, rather fittingly, it’s set to document the most important years in the club’s history.

We’ve seen multiple Man City docs in recent years – their 2018 All Or Nothing Amazon Prime Video mini-series being the first – but the launch of the Together franchise back in April has helped put City Studios, on the map.

The in-house entertainment arm, first set up in 2022, has even more ambitious plans for the coming years, with a huge deal to create multiple big-budget productions in collaboration with Sony.

City Football Group strike landmark deal with Sony for series of TV shows
Fans are getting even more behind-the-scenes content soon.

Gavin Johnson, Media Director at CFG, said of the trailer reveal: “We’re delighted to announce the release of our latest offering in the ‘Together’ collection.

“Produced once again by our award-winning in-house production and creative hub, City Studios, the documentary film offers our fans a true insight into the team and how they achieved the historic four-in-a-row success.”

Set to be released at 6pm UK time on 20 November, Together: 4-In-A-Row will only be able to watch via the CITY+ platform.

So, if you’re a Blue who wants to relive the last four years of non-stop silverware, you can enjoy a 30-day free trial, after which CITY+ is just £4.99 a month. An annual subscription can be purchased for £34.99 a year or for £30 with an Official Cityzens membership/season ticket.

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Featured Images — Manchester City

Sport

Man United legend Eric Cantona stuns Manchester artists with surprise visit to GRIT Studios

Danny Jones Danny Jones Eric Cantona surprises Manchester artists at GRIT Studios

Artists working at a Manchester studio were left speechless by a recent surprise visit from none other than Man United legend Eric Cantona.

The former United forward’s love for the city has never waned no matter how many years have gone by and as a lover of all things art, be it music, painting, acting or what he did with a football, he never fails to engage with local culture whenever he’s here.

He may not be based here anymore but the Frenchman – who knows a thing or two about art given his past acting jobs, newfound music career and previous showcases – still pays plenty of visits to 0161, including a recent unannounced one.

Cantona was back in the city centre this week to pay GRIT Studios resident Michael Browne, the artist who he collaborated with to create his National Football Museum exhibition last year, but the one thing Browne didn’t do was let the other people working in their city centre location he was coming.

GRIT Studios Manchester Stockport
Cantona pays Manchester art studio a surprise visit
Credit: GRIT Studios Manchester (supplied)

To be fair, anyone would double-take if they saw Eric Cantona walk into a room, so this was quite a memorable occasion for the unsuspecting artists.

After working on 2023’s From Moss Side to Marseille with Browne, the 58-year-old has been reimmersing himself in the world of Manchester art and there aren’t many places that epitomise that more than GRIT, who are based in Stockport with a second studio at Great Northern Warehouse.

Landing in Manchester from Paris, Cantona arrived in the late morning and ended up staying for over an hour, taking time to meet a number of artists and tour the space with co-founder John Macaulay.

Clearly impressed with their work and genuinely enthused by the sense of community within the local grassroots art scene, it was a special visit for everyone involved.

John, a die-hard Man United fan who has seen the Red Devils play in 25 countries before going on to set up GRIT Studios and much-loved Art Battle MCR with his wife Sophie, said: “It’s full circle for me having watched Eric play all over the world, it’s true honour that he’s flown in to see our talented artists.”

eric cantona back in manchester
eric cantona at manchester art studio
Credit: Supplied

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Artists spent time chatting with Eric and talking through their creative processes; those present included mosaic artist, Francis Thorrington, plein air (outdoor) artist, Sketch MCR – a.k.a. Ben Rock – painters Jodie Silverman, Helen Davies and Sophie Macaulay, as well as woodworker Gus Riddell.

Also a fellow United fan, Francis said he simply “couldn’t stop smiling the whole time” after Cantona described his work as wonderful.

Eric looked at home when he picked up and started strumming Chris Pollin’s hand-made guitars, which are handcrafted from driftwood and take hundreds of hours of work.

The enigmatic sports personality turned pop philosopher and cultural figure clearly enjoyed the visit. His final message was that it was refreshing to see a place where “art was for everyone” not just the elite.

As for Browne, he is sworn to secrecy on his next project but let’s just say you can expect some big announcements in the coming weeks. As for GRIT, you can visit one of their open days this Saturday, 16 November and make sure to check out their Stockport studio if you’re in the area.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — GRIT Studios (supplied)

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