Melbourne City Football Club has today announced a five-year sponsorship agreement with Etihad Airways – the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.
Scott Munn, Chief Executive Officer of Melbourne City, and James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, unveiled the principal partnership as well as their new team kit at AAMI Park.
The club’s new white home kit will feature the famous “City sky blue” that features on Manchester City’s home shirt while Melbourne’s away strip will pay homage to the original red-and-white kit of Melbourne Heart.
In a statement released by the club, Etihad Airways President and CEO, James Hogan said: “Etihad Airways and the city of Melbourne have a special relationship. It’s not only one of the most popular destinations in our global network, it’s also the home of Etihad Stadium, Melbourne’s premier sports and entertainment precinct.
“Our new partnership with Melbourne City FC further strengthens our ties with this great city and, we hope, will support the Club and its army of fans in their bid to win the Hyundai A-League.”
Despite revealing the new Etihad partnership and kit, Melbourne City FC CEO Scott Munn remained tight-lipped on whether or not the club had secured the services of England and Chelsea legend Frank Lampard.
“As a standard rule we don’t comment on any media speculation,” Munn said.
“But if – since January when [City Football Group] acquired us – we’d signed every player linked to us we’d have 60 players flying with us tonight.
“For us, we’re really happy with how our list is coming together and really looking forward to a couple of weeks [of] pre-season,.”
With cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory referring to the “short-term view” that City seem to have with the signing of David Villa – as opposed to Victory’s long-term view – Munn said the club remains focused on youth development.
“John van ’t Schip has a very clear direction that he wants to take the club and promote youth,” he said.
“We announced new, longer-term contracts for Stefan Mauk and Ben Garuccio [who are] two players that were given great opportunities last year and are now key to our first team – those players are some of the best young talent and that’s where our focus is.
Munn also touched on the benefits that a player of David Villa’s calibre would bring to the A-League but did not give a specific date for when the Spanish forward will arrive in Melbourne.
“Being able to bring David Villa to the league is a benefit to everybody. We have an obligation to ourselves to perform on the pitch and that’s what John [van ’t Schip] and his team will be doing but we also have an obligation to improve the game here [in Australia],” he said.
“I don’t think anyone will complain – having seen David Villa score against Australia – having him in the league is a good thing.
“I did notice he was actually back training yesterday [but] we’re not sure [when he’ll arrive]. He’s had a break. We’re hopeful that he’ll be here early in the pre-season and see him play some games leading into Christmas,” Munn added.
The Melbourne City CEO also revealed midfielder Damien Duff will link up with the rest of the Melbourne City squad tomorrow and will also trial a number of foreign players during their pre-season trip to the UK.
The Melbourne City squad and management team will depart for Manchester City’s Carrington based training centre tonight as they embark on their pre-season tour of England.
Read More > City to travel to Carrington base