'It's the tipping point' - why Man City fans are still boycotting Community Shield despite kick-off U-turn

Manchester City fans have secured a victory over the authorities this week by forcing the Community Shield kick-off time back by 90 minutes later this summer. But they have no plans of stopping there.

City supporters were largely furious at the decision to schedule the 2023 Community Shield curtain-raiser vs Arsenal at Wembley on Sunday, August 6, with a 5.30pm kick-off time. With limited public transport options on a Sunday evening, 30,000 City fans faced a return to Manchester in the early hours of Monday morning for another Wembley trip.

After thousands of fans spent thousands of pounds to get to Istanbul at the end of a long season, many were willing to leave the Community Shield and save their money. That is where the 1894 fan group stepped in, organising a boycott of the game to send a clear message to the FA and broadcasters ITV.

With over £5000 donated to the MCFC Fans Supporting Foodbanks group demonstrating the strong feeling as fans gave their ticket money to charity, City contacted the FA and the kick-off time has since been changed to 4pm on the Sunday. Still, it's not enough.

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"It's the Community Shield. How 'community' is it to force a set of Northern fans to make a 400-mile round trip on a school night? It's an absolute joke," says Nick Clarke of the MCFC Fans Supporting Foodbanks.

"We are 100 per cent not happy, it's nice that the FA have appeared to listen, but you saw in their statement. They said they changed it after 'taking into full consideration' [the travel concerns]. Why did you not take fans' travelling arrangements into full consideration before? I can't believe they said it. It's saying the quiet