City Football Group and BrandEd unveil ‘City Football Leadership Institute’

City Football Group, the world’s leading private owner and operator of football
clubs, has partnered with BrandEd, pioneers of innovative branded education, to launch the City
Football Leadership Institute.

The City Football Leadership Institute joins BrandEd’s portfolio of education ventures including
Sotheby’s Institute of Art, founded over fifty years ago with campuses in New York and London, and
The School of The New York Times, operating since 2016 in New York and Washington D.C. In art,
media, culture, and now sport, BrandEd partners with renowned companies to transition culturally
relevant and intellectually rigorous brands into educational programmes.

Established in May 2013, City Football Group has total or partial ownership of 10 clubs in major cities
across the world including Premier League Champions, Manchester City and MLS Champions New
York City FC. With offices around the world, CFG also invests in other football related businesses and
projects and serves as a global commercial platform for its partners, whilst fulfilling its vision of using
football for social good on a local and global scale through its clubs’ charities, foundations and other
CSR initiatives.

BrandEd’s educational expertise will combine with CFG’s industry knowledge to produce a rigorous
educational environment with exclusive access to an innovative global sports business. CFG will
support the Institute with executives as lecturers, providing real world industry insights, hosting
students at CFG facilities, and exploring ways to work with students and alumni, whether through
internships, mentoring, or career possibilities. Courses will be led by practitioners, CFG executives
and luminaries from the sports world and beyond.

The inaugural programme will be a youth summer experience in July 2022, followed in autumn 2022
by an accelerator week for executives. Further executive education offerings will be announced in
due course. These will establish two distinct and core audiences, with courses designed to impact
and empower lives through education.

The first programme, named Next Gen, is aimed at teens aged 15-18 and is an immersive two-week
introduction to the world of sport, with a focus on insight, inspiration, and self-reflection as a
pathway for personal development at this key life stage. The second programme, the Executive
Accelerator, is a week-long leadership programme for mid to senior-level professionals to power-up
their careers through insight from time spent with CFG senior executives, examination of case
studies across a variety of sport businesses, executive coaching, leadership training, and networking.
Both programmes will take place in London and the Etihad Campus in Manchester.

Applications will open on March 14. Financial aid will be available for Next Gen students, with UK
residents who meet widening participation criteria eligible to apply. Additionally, a minimum of five
full scholarships will be made available within the Next Gen programme.

Jorgina Busquets, Managing Director, Football Education & Recreation at City Football Group, said:

“Football is the world’s most loved, watched and played sport. At City Football Group, we have a
strong track record in training players and coaches all over the world and we are delighted to extend
that educational offering to the business of sport. The City Football Leadership Institute will help to
train the next generation of talented young people and professionals who will be the future of our
sport.

“In BrandEd, we have the perfect and experienced strategic partner to create courses and
programmes which will help drive and inspire careers in sport.

“We are committed to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to access and benefit from the
CFLI. We are delighted to be offering both scholarships and financial assistance to ensure we can
encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply.”

Michael Chung, CEO of BrandEd, added:

“We are witnessing a massive disruption taking place in the education space where students are
migrating towards compelling content and knowledge delivered by those that are practitioners and
leaders in their respective industries. Sport is one of the greatest teaching platforms for leadership
and to enable individuals to become expert in personal and external transformation, and to be
prepared for the needs of an ever-changing world.

“We believe that CFG is changing the game of football by building a truly global platform for football
talent, media, and entertainment.

“We are proud to be CFG’s partner and are excited to leverage the unmatched capabilities and reach
of the company to develop innovative and compelling education programmes for a wide range of
demographics from pre-university to seasoned executives.”