FC United to redevelop the SMRE to support the expansion of its Academy

The board of FC United of Manchester has approved plans to redevelop the space beneath the St Mary’s Road End terrace to accommodate a planned increase in the number of Academy students.

This represents an important community initiative which fits the club’s ambitious long-term plans to support local young people through the expansion and improvement of its Academy. Currently 90 percent of the club’s Academy students come from within a three mile radius of Broadhurst Park and the redevelopment of the SMRE will see FC United providing educational and sporting opportunities in a high quality environment to even more young people in North Manchester. After a two year period during which education has been seriously disrupted by the pandemic this is an important development that is supported by Manchester City Council.

The FC United Academy currently offers a full-time education and training programme for boys aged from 16 to 18 with the goal of achieving a recognised qualification – a BTEC Level 3 in Sport. It provides a comprehensive programme to students which is pretty much unrivalled outside professional football and combines educational and sporting opportunities along with community activities to give students work and volunteering experience that, in addition to a qualification, equips them with transferable skills that are valued by employers.

Currently Broadhurst Park has sufficient space to accommodate around fifty Academy students but the club has ambitious plans, as set out in its long term vision, to expand the Academy to 120 students from September this year and also develop a girl’s Academy in time for the 2023-24 academic year.

A proposal by chief executive officer Neil Reynolds to redevelop the space under the SMRE was approved at February’s board meeting and it includes three classrooms, new flooring, additional toilets, break-out space and a canteen which will provide an improved learning experience for students and enhance the club’s reputation as a place of education. The redevelopment will not impact on the provision of match day bars or the use of the space for the ever-popular Course You Can Malcolm events on match days.

It will however mean that the club cannot continue to host the food hub which has been based under the SMRE since it was established at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in March 2020. In total, over the last two years, the food hub has provided much needed support to around 200 households and more than four hundred people including people self-isolating, people with mental health problems and families who had run out of cash as self-employed bread winners, whose livelihoods had been crushed by the pandemic, awaited financial support from the government.

And it’s been about much more than simply providing food parcels with the recognition early on that the food hub needed to support minds as well as bodies which led to the provision of books, magazines, recipes and mindfulness CDs and all service users receiving regular calls from food hub coordinators to check how they were doing.

The food hub’s outstanding work led to the club receiving a Special Recognition Award in June 2020 from the High Sheriff of Greater Manchester who described it as “a lifeline for many vulnerable people” across North Manchester and it also received local and national recognition on Granada Reports, The One Show and during the BBC’s coverage of our FA Cup tie against Doncaster Rovers in November 2020. It was also one of only three projects shortlisted for the Football Supporters’ Association’s Lockdown Heroes Award in February 2021.

It’s been a wonderful collective effort by a dedicated group of volunteers led by the club’s community liaison officer, Vinny Thompson, which has demonstrated the importance of FC United to its local community. Vinny described it as “a beautiful piece of social engagement” and it’s one that has been performed throughout with the thoughtfulness, compassion and sensitivity all too often missing from our London-based decision makers during the last two years. This has been the toughest of times for an area already battered by a decade of austerity but in the midst of the greatest health and economic crisis of our lifetimes the club, through the food hub, rose to the challenge magnificently with an unstinting resolve to help its local community.

During the last six months however the food hub has helped people find more holistic support elsewhere and as a result has reduced the number of households it supports to around thirty – mainly people in financial hardship – as the worst of the pandemic’s health and economic impacts have eased. In the process the food hub has built relationships with other social food providers across Manchester and begun to refer clients for wider social support.

Clearly it’s important that the food hub’s closure is handled considerately and board member Paul Butcher has been leading discussions with staff and Manchester City Council on an exit strategy with the Council fully supportive of the redevelopment of the SMRE and closure of the food hub. A working group comprised of FC United and Council representatives will establish an action plan to redevelop the SMRE space and will, importantly, also ensure the safe transfer of existing food hub clients to other providers and that any remaining stock and assets are fully utilised to meet the needs of people across North Manchester prior to the closure of the food hub on 18^th April 2022.

As we gradually emerge from the pandemic the board and Council is in agreement that this is the right time for the club to refocus its community programme and significantly improve educational opportunities for young people in North Manchester. In the meantime the board would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed, in so many ways, to the operation of the food hub during the last two years. It has been a magnificent effort and one that the club should be very proud of.

Further information on this redevelopment of the SMRE can be viewed by the club’s co-owners on the members’ forum. Any press enquiries should be addressed to press@fc-utd.uk.