Man City and Man United come together as letter fired to FA over Community Shield fears

They may be rivals on the pitch, but Manchester City and Manchester United fans are firmly on the same page ahead of August's Community Shield clash between the two sides at Wembley.

After back-to-back FA Cup final meetings, United's win in May means they set up a Community Shield final against Premier League champions City. Despite winning the last four league titles, the Blues will be looking to win the Community Shield for the first time since 2019, having lost the last three curtain-raisers against Leicester, Liverpool and Arsenal.

United are in their first Community Shield since 2016, when they beat Leicester, and have won six of their last seven matches in the competition - including the 2011 win over City at Wembley.

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However, despite the anticipation for another derby at Wembley, fans are keen to avoid a repeat of last season's controversial scheduling that made it difficult for more than 30,000 City supporters to get to London and back.

The 2023 Community Shield was a Sunday fixture with a 4.30pm kick-off, causing thousands of City fans to boycott and remain in Manchester. While City still sold out their allocation, the atmosphere was far different to the Blues support that saw their side win the FA Cup a few months earlier.

Ahead of the 2024 fixture, City and United supporters groups have been in direct discussion to attempt to persuade the FA to schedule the game on Saturday August 10 at 3pm, rather than move it to any other time for TV broadcast. A later kick-off on the Saturday, or a Sunday kick-off would make it difficult for fans to return to Manchester after the game on public transport, especially with up to 90,000 fans making the journey from the North West.

City supporters' group 1894 say they have been in contact with the Official Supporter's Club, elected fans' group City Matters, and the MCFC Fans Supporting Foodbanks group over the issue. They have also spoken to MUST, the Manchester United Supporters' Trust.

One issue preventing a Saturday 3pm kick-off could be the long-standing 3pm blackout, preventing broadcast at that time. However, with no Premier League fixtures on that weekend, and permission already given for Sky Sports to show fixtures from the opening weekend of the EFL at the same time, there is hope that a Saturday kick-off can be arranged.

The two meetings in the cup finals were both Saturday 3pm games at Wembley.

1894 have sent a letter to the FA to try and persuade chair Debbie Hewitt of the importance of a Saturday kick-off, highlighting the travel concerns of a later start, the precedent set from the last two cup finals taking place at Saturday at 3pm, and the EFL issues above. They are hoping for a response to clarify the matter so fans can begin planning what will be a 20th trip to Wembley in cup competitions under Pep Guardiola.