Pre-season 2026

cptaidan88 said:
Surprised we've not heard (or I haven't anyway) where we're going for the bulk of pre-season yet. Have seen other teams announce games in recent days.

The friendly in Palermo last year was described as the "inaugural Anglo Palermitan Trophy", and I'd very much be in favour of playing there again. Last year it clashes with Oasis for me, so would jump at the opportunity to go if we played again this year, although I believe it was uncomfortably warm.

Reasonable chance of us having to play in the community shield one way or another. I believe it's in Cardiff this year, which at least is more appealing than Wembley.
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A pre season visit to Hong Kong is set to be confirmed very soon. We're one of the clubs rumoured to visit along with Juvenuts and Bayern Munich
 
Definitely some sort of tour of Asia... Wouldn't be shocked if there's another friendly with Yokohama
 
mr t said:
I have to be honest with you - I don’t really care about City fans abroad. It’s bad enough that all our domestic games are scheduled for the appetite of worldwide TV an audiences without having to play friendlies abroad when they could be played here.

I also don’t get why folk in other countries want to support foreign teams.
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Also worth bearing in mind that virtually none of them gave a toss about us 30 years ago when we were struggling to stayin the Prem. Most (not all, but most) of them are just glory hunters jumping on the bandwagon
 
Penfold the Duke said:
On a holiday to the Greek mainland and took a short trip to Athens. Early start up the Acropolis before it became too crowded. On the way down, the queue of people going up was chock a block. A big older American guy was asking his family where they were, “Athens” they replied. “GODDAMMIT I thought we were going to Greece today”
I presume he was off a cruise going from country to country but didn’t know one country or city from another.
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That's typical of many Americans though, the US is so big that most of them don't know one end of it from another. We had a holiday in the Dominican Republic a few years ago and met one American couple there who had travelled from Detroit, about 1800 miles, and didn't believe that we'd travelled over 4000 miles from Manchester.
 
coolcity said:
Also worth bearing in mind that virtually none of them gave a toss about us 30 years ago when we were struggling to stayin the Prem. Most (not all, but most) of them are just glory hunters jumping on the bandwagon
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Totally agree with this - if only us local mancunions had the same spending power……
 
I personally want City to come to Dublin. Fuck Arsenal and United and Liverpool.
Haven’t been since 2011 and would even like a training session or something.
Up the Irish blues.
 
Oyster28catcher said:
Couldn't think of a worse place to watch games. The whole experiences on mainland China is dull. Unless you like vaied levels of commercial VIP schemes and games at athletic tracks with no interest in you as a fan.
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I thought that but Shenzhen get 20k plus crowds and it looks an amazing city.
 
I've just found a story in the South China Morning Post from a few days back claiming that City play Inter in Hong Kong on 1 August, with Chelsea facing Juventus on 4 August and Bayern meeting Aston Villa on 7 August (both the clubs involved have already confirmed the latter on their official websites). Another local news source says the organisers will hold a news conference on Tuesday, 21 April.

Villa's story on their website about the Bayern fixture states that they're likely to announce other matches in the Far East in dur course. Presumably we also will, and it wouldn't altogether surprise me if we announce that we're playing one of Chelsea or Villa out there at some point. That's purely a guess, though, and I claim no inside knowledge.
 
petrusha said:
I've just found a story in the South China Morning Post from a few days back claiming that City play Inter in Hong Kong on 1 August, with Chelsea facing Juventus on 4 August and Bayern meeting Aston Villa on 7 August (both the clubs involved have already confirmed the latter on their official websites). Another local news source says the organisers will hold a news conference on Tuesday, 21 April.

Villa's story on their website about the Bayern fixture states that they're likely to announce other matches in the Far East in dur course. Presumably we also will, and it wouldn't altogether surprise me if we announce that we're playing one of Chelsea or Villa out there at some point. That's purely a guess, though, and I claim no inside knowledge.
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Must have a visit to Shenzhen lined up as well you would think.Be hot and humid that time of year. :(
 
Blackburn, West Brom, Bolton, Barnsley please instead it'll be wank games for the quick dollar.
 
Big Jonjo said:
I'm wondering with what's happening in the middle east and with the World Cup on to mid July, would we be better playing at home this season for preseason. I'm also thinking if the North Stand isn't complete until after this season ends, could we have some friendlies at home for the test events. Possibly against smaller teams initially as the test events will probably have a restricted crowd, then culminating with a match against the likes of Barcelona or Vinnys Bayern Munich, or both. To me, this would make more sense than travelling to foreign climes this year.
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Great shout!
 
Sounds like plenty of teams will be out that way then. I'd imagine Singapore/Bangkok/Kuala Lumpur likely options.

Wouldn't rule out Shenzhen but likely to be more money on the table playing European sides or a combined XI than just visiting another CFG team.
 
mr t said:
I agree with that but my point is that pre-season friendlies don’t have to be played in stadiums thousands of miles from home.
Back in the day pre-season games were mainly against local teams and they gave people the opportunity to see their local teams in the flesh at very little cost. Local people could afford to take their kids along and it was an important way of connecting with local people and increasing the local fanbase.
Instead we are now treated to the annual overseas tournaments that nobody remembers 6 months down the line whatever the outcome is.
Like I said I care more about filling our stadium and selling our shirts to local people and I’m not bothered how many fans we have in New York or Tokyo.
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local games are for the EDS / u18s nowadays , 1st team and even sometimes the EDS are on sponsor led ( paid ) pre season tours .... big money
 
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