Post by Bluemoon on Feb 29, 2012 20:29:19 GMT 1
City will take on Arsenal in a pre-season friendly in Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ Stadium this summer.
From the official site:
The Premier League rivals will meet at the venue for the 2008 Olympic Games, on Friday 27 July, the day the 2012 Olympic Games begin in London.
The Blues have headed to the Far East before. There was a 1975/76 tour of Japan and South Korea and in 1996 City travelled to Tianjin in China where one game was played - the other two matches being called off due to flooding.
Indeed, this is City's third visit to China but the first to the city of Beijing. The club enjoyed enormously a pre-season tour to Shanghai under former boss Stuart Pearce with a team that included China playing legend Sun Jihai.
The game against the Gunners will be one of the showpieces of City’s 2012 summer campaign, following on from the last two years, when Roberto Mancini’s men have conducted succesive tours of the United States of America.
Intrim Chief Executive Officer, John MacBeath, said: “This game will be a hugely exciting one for Manchester City. The ‘Bird’s Nest’ Stadium is a truly iconic world sporting stadium, and it will be a fitting venue to host a classic encounter between two of the English Premier League’s greatest clubs.
"It is clear that there is huge appetite for the Premier League in the Far East, and we are very much looking forward to taking our talented squad there to witness the excitement and put on a sporting spectacle for our fans in China."
The Gunners will be travelling to China for the second consecutive year, following their successful summer Asia tour in July 2011, in which the Club played matches in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Hangzhou, China.
Read more at...........................
www.mcfc.co.uk/News/Team-news/2012/February/City-heading-for-China-to-play-Arsenal-in-the-summer
