Manchester City andManchester United are popularPremier League football clubs in Greater Manchester.United's ground is inOld Trafford; Manchester City's home ground is theCity of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester. Fixtures between the clubs are referred to as theManchester Derby. Manchester United are historically the second most successful football club in England with 67 elite honours won (including three European Cups) and was the first team in England to achieve theContinental treble. Manchester United's revenue was thefifth highest of a football club in the world in the 2022–23 season at €745.8 million.[1][2] In 2023, Forbes estimated the club was thesecond most valuable in the world at $6 billion.[3]
Manchester City have won tendomestic league titles, most recently in2024. Under the management ofPep Guardiola in winning the Premier League in 2018, they became the only Premier League team toattain 100 points in a single season.In 2019, theywon four trophies, completing an unprecedented sweep of alldomestic trophies in England and is the first English men's team to win theDomestic treble. In 2023, They became the second English team to win theContinental treble. This makes Manchester the only city in Europe to have two continental treble winning teams.[4] Manchester City's revenue was thesecond highest of a football club in the world in the 2022–23 season at €825.9 million.[1][2] In 2023, Forbes estimated the club was thefifth most valuable in the world at $4.99 billion.[3] Manchester has hosted every major domestic, continental and international football competition, including theWorld Cup in1966, theEuropean Championship in1996,Olympic Football in 2012, the2003 UEFA Champions League Final, the2008 UEFA Cup Final,1893,1911,1915 and1970 FA Cup Finals and1977,1978 and1984 Football League Cup Final.
Lancashire County Cricket Club, formed in 1865 to replaceManchester Cricket Club, play atOld Trafford cricket ground.
Manchester has competed twice to host theOlympic Games, being beaten into fourth place byAtlanta in 1996 and coming third toSydney in 2000. Manchester hosted the2002 Commonwealth Games with many sporting facilities being built for them, including theCity of Manchester Stadium, theManchester Velodrome, theNational Squash Centre and theManchester Aquatics Centre
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TwoPremier Leaguefootball clubs,Manchester United andManchester City, bear the city's name. Manchester City's home ground, theCity of Manchester Stadium, is two miles outsideManchester city centre in east Manchester and Manchester United's,Old Trafford, the largest club football ground in theUnited Kingdom, on the west side two miles from the city centre.
Both City and United, as of 2001, had a highly localised fanbase with the majority of season ticket holding fans in the outer postal areas (BL, OL, SK, and WA) of Greater Manchester and within other counties of the North-west[5][6] Only a fraction of both clubs' respective season ticket subscribers came from within the central areas of the City of Manchester. The Manchester postal area includes the (strongly United supporting)City of Salford but alsoPrestwich andWhitefield in Bury (with one of the largest City supporters clubs). This research was conducted before City moved to the larger (48,000 capacity) City of Manchester Stadium, and before the expansion of United's Old Trafford stadium which now accommodates 76,000 meaning that the situation will have changed in the period since it was written.
Further research, published in 2008, has identified that the Manchester region is split with City's support predominantly coming in the south and east of Greater Manchester and the surrounding area and United's in the west.[7] United's nationwide and international support far exceeds that of City. Polls done in the local media suggest that the support of both clubs is split nearly 50/50 within the city and United edging out City with a small majority in all of Greater Manchester.
Aside from their two Premier League clubs, Manchester's earliest known association football club wasHulme Athenaeum, established in November 1863 with its first secretary being Jonathan Nall.[8][9] Manchester hosted the first meeting of representatives from thehome nations football associations in 1886, and theInternational Football Association Board, which makes the rules for the game, was formed following this meeting. FIFA adopted the rules and regulations of football laid out by the IFAB when the organisation formed in 1904.[10] Manchester has remained a regular summit location for IFAB meetings since their formation.[11]
Manchester also hosts several other smallersemi-pro andamateur football clubs, the most notable of which isF.C. United of Manchester, who are based atBroadhurst Park inMoston, an area less than three miles north of the city centre. They play in the 6th tier of English football in theNational League North after being promoted fromNPL Premier Division.
TheManchester Football League is the officialamateur football league ofManchester.
The city hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and athletics events took place at the City of Manchester Stadium, which is now home to Manchester City and sometimes referred to as Eastlands. Next to Eastlands lies theManchester Regional Arena, which has been used for British athletics trials and the annualParalympic World Cup which has been held in Manchester since 2005.
The city also hosts the annualGreat Manchester Run which has been hosted since 2003 and has become one of the most popular 10 km runs in the UK. In addition, the city also hosts the annual Great City Games, featuring a 110m sprint track onDeansgate inManchester city centre. The world's top athletes are invited and in 2009Usain Bolt took part.
Manchester is a city that is steeped in Rugby League tradition, although thebrough hadn't been home a professional Rugby League club based since the Belle Vue Rangers disbanded as a club after the 1954–55 season. The club started out asBroughton Rangers in 1877.
With in the county ofGreater Manchester, there are six professional clubs:Wigan Warriors,Salford Red Devils,Leigh Leopards (all of theSuper League),Swinton Lions (of the RFL Championship), andOldham Roughyeds andRochdale Hornets (both of theRFL League 1). The first of these, Wigan Warriors, is the United Kingdom's most successful rugby league side having won 22 league championships, 19 cup titles, and 4 world championships.
Old Trafford is home to theSuper League Grand Final and has hosted it every years since its inception (except for 2020 due toCOVID-19), and also hosted its predecessor tournament, theRugby League Premiership final, every year since 1987. The stadium had hosted three world cup finals in 2000, 2013, and 2021, with other stadiums in the county also hosting several world cup matches throughout history.
Canadian sideToronto Wolfpack used to complete in theBritish rugby league system. Their United Kingdom base was theManchester Metropolitan University. In 2018 the Wolfpack and MMU jointly established a player development pathway in which the Wolfpack coach the MMU's university team, operate youth programs in both Manchester andToronto, and encourage top young rugby talent from Toronto to pursue the sport in Manchester.[12]
The city also has several amateur clubs including Manchester Rangers andMancunians RL.
Sale Sharks are the professional rugby union club which represents Manchester and the North West in England's top flight rugby union competition,Premiership Rugby.[13] They play at theSalford Community Stadium in Greater Manchester having previously played atEdgeley Park inStockport and atHeywood Road. Heywood Road is still used by theNational League 1 sideSale FC.
Manchester Rugby Club was founded as Manchester Football Club in 1860, eleven years before the formation of theRugby Football Union. The club is one of the oldestrugby union clubs in the world, along withBlackheath Rugby Club andLiverpool St Helens F.C. The club's ground is at Grove Park inCheadle Hulme.[14]See main article:Manchester Rugby Club
Broughton Park Rugby Union F.C. is one of the oldestrugby union clubs in England and was established in 1882, just one year after the Lancashire County Rugby Union was founded and eleven years after the formation of the nationalRugby Football Union.The club has had a number of different grounds in its time, mainly in the Salford/Prestwich area, but also in the south of Manchester. Since 2004, it has played at Hough End inChorlton-cum-Hardy.[15]
Old Bedians Rugby (Union) Club was founded in 1954 as an Old Boys club for St Bedes College. Originally based in Chorlton, Old Bedians became one of two Didsbury rugby clubs in 1965. The club is on Millgate Lane inDidsbury Village.[16]
Didsbury Toc-H Rugby (Union) Club was founded in 1924 as "Toc H Manchester" in Victoria Park. After moving to various sites, the club arrived inDidsbury and in 1986 the name was changed to "Didsbury Toc-H" to identify with the clubhouse at Ford Lane in theDidsbury Village. "Toc-H" comes from a soldiers' club atPoperinghe inFlanders in theFirst World War. Soldiers and officers could get a respite from the battlefields. This place was named Talbot House in honour of a young lieutenant who was killed in action the year before. Signallers pronounced the letters 'T' as 'Toc' and 'H' as 'House'. When the rugby club was founded, Manchester soldiers called the new club as "Toc-H Manchester".[17]
Burnage Rugby Club play in National 3 and are based near Parrs Wood Entertainment Complex.
Manchester also has other rugby union teams: theUniversity of Manchester Rugby Club,[18] andManchester Village Spartans RUFC
New to the Manchester rugby scene is East Manchester RUFC. Also known as the Rhinos. Created in 2024. East Manchester RUFC is already a fan favourite match up with most of the amateur teams in and surrounding Manchester, with games being watched with huge crowds and high scores. Their two highest wins are currently a 129-5 home win over Old Bedians Rugby Club and a 0-100 away win over Sale FC. The future is looking bright for the Manchester rugby scene.Up the Rhinos.
Victoria Baths are inChorlton-on-Medlock.[19]
Manchester has an Olympic-standard swimming pool in theManchester Aquatics Centre, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, which is now part of theUniversity of Manchester. The university runs the University of Manchester Swimming Club at the aquatics centre which was formed in 1885.[citation needed]
Manchester has a number of swimming clubs. The City of Manchester Aquatic Swim Team based at the Aquatic Centre and they run academy sessions throughout Manchester.
Old Trafford cricket ground, in the Metropolitan Borough ofTrafford, was originally the home ofManchester Cricket Club, but became the home ofLancashire County Cricket Club in 1864 upon the club's formation. Built in 1856, the ground is on Talbot Road, Stretford.
A test match venue since 1884,[20] the 155-year-old ground is one of the most famous in world cricket, onlyThe Oval inLondon can claim to have hosted an England test match earlier and the ground has hosted threeWorld Cup semi-finals. The ground has seen many Ashes moments, including the 1902 Ashes test where Australia won by 3 runs (the closest test match winning margin and one which stood for nearly a century until 1993[21]), "Jim Laker Test" in July 1956 where the England spinner took 19 wickets,[22]Shane Warne's "Ball of the Century" againstMike Gatting and more recently the tense 2005 Ashes Test at Old Trafford when more than 20,000 fans had to be turned away due to tickets being sold out.[23]
Redevelopment plans have existed since the early 2000s (decade) as the cricket ground was in need of renovation, and even a move away to Sportcity nearbyManchester City F.C.'sCity of Manchester Stadium was touted as a serious possibility.[24] Nearly £25m is expected to be invested in the redevelopments at Old Trafford.[20] Similar to its counterpart, one end of the Old Trafford cricket ground is called the Stretford End, the other end of the ground is called the Brian Statham end.
Lancashire hold the record for the most tournament wins in thePro40 tournament (5 times) which ran from 1969 to 2009 and the Friends Provident Trophy (7 times) which ran from 1963 to 2009. Despite this strong one-day success, Lancashire have not won the top tier of theCounty Championship since 1934. In total they have won the County Championship on eight occasions in 1881, 1897, 1904, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930 and 1934. However, they still remain one of the top county cricket clubs in the country and Lancashire maintains a healthy rivalry with Yorkshire, which is sometimes referred to as the Battle of the Roses (a pun on the actualWar of the Roses which involved Lancashire and Yorkshire on opposing sides).
TheNational Cycling Centre includes a velodrome, BMX Arena and Mountainbike trials and is the home ofBritish Cycling, UCI ProTeamTeam Sky andSky Track Cycling. TheManchester Velodrome is the UK's first purpose-built indoor Cycling Velodrome, which was primarily built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. It is near theCity of Manchester Stadium. British Cycling have stated their wish to remain based in Manchester, instead of moving to TheLondon Velopark for the2012 Summer Olympics, as development continues with the construction of aNational BMX Arena next to British Cycling's base at the Manchester Velodrome.[25][26]
The Velodrome has become one of the fastest velodrome tracks in the world and its board tracks consist of 80 kilometres of 40mm Siberian pine on 380trusses around the velodrome track. The Velodrome is covered by a 122-metre arched roof enabling unrestricted viewing for the spectators.[27] The Velodrome has hosted the UCI World Championships which is the set of world championship events for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling and are regulated by theUnion Cycliste Internationale 3 times in 1996, 2000 and 2008 - no other venue has hosted more.
Fallowfield Stadium was anathletics stadium andvelodrome inFallowfield which opened in May 1892 as the home of Manchester Athletic Club after it was forced to move from its home next toOld Trafford Cricket Ground.[28] Fallowfield was most regularly used for cycling by theManchester Wheelers' Club, who held their annual competition there until 1976.[28]
Motorcycle speedway racing has been staged at five venues in Manchester. The first events were staged at the greyhound stadium in Kirkmanshume Lane in 1928 and was known as Belle Vue Speedway. Speedway activities continued under the Belle Vue name at the purpose-built stadium in Hyde Road from 1929 to 1987, without any breaks even during the war years of 1939 - 1945, when the stadium was sold and redeveloped. Speedway racing returned to the greyhound stadium in Kirkmanshume Lane in 1988 and continued there until 2015. In 2016 the new £10m National Speedway Stadium with a 6,000 capacity was opened next door to the old greyhound stadium on Kirkmanshulme Lane. The speedway team are known as the Belle Vue Aces.Peter Craven, Ove Fundin, Ivan Mauger, Peter Collins and Jason Crump are amongst the riders who have won World Championships when riding for the Aces.The White City stadium was used in the pioneer days from 1928 to 1930 and a training track at Newton Heath operated in the early post war period.[29]
Manchester has a strong history and modern day presence with basketball. TheManchester Giants compete in the nationwide, franchise basedBritish Basketball League, and have done so since their rebirth in 2012. They play their home games at the Trafford Powerleague Arena and are coached by Manchester basketball legendYorick Williams, who is in his second year in charge of the club.
TheManchester Magic were originally formed as the reserve side of the formerManchester Giants. Since the formal separation soon after, the Magic have flourished, and are current champions of the second tierEnglish Basketball League Division 1, and play their home games at theAmaechi Basketball Centre, built with the support of formerNBA player John Amaechi. Both clubs have strong youth development programs across Greater Manchester.
In 2016,Basketball England opened their newNational Basketball Performance Centre inBelle Vue, Manchester, comprising the best practice facilities available for the national teams, and retractable seating for 2000. The centre hosted the GB Women'sEurobasket qualifiers againstAlbania andMontenegro.
TheManchester Titans are anAmerican Football club whose first team played in theBAFA National Leagues. They are the largest American Football club in Great Britain, having Adult Contact, Adult Flag, Women's Contact, Women's Flag, U19 Contact, two U17 contact, U17 flag and U12 flag teams. All teams compete in the highest available divisions, in 2017 the Adult Contact team won the Division 1 National Title, the Adult Flag team winning the MEC North Division, the U19 team finishing runners-up in theBritbowl Trophy and the U17 South team finishing as undefeated North Division Champions. The Titans play at the National Speedway Stadium at Belle Vue.
In 2010, Manchester Metropolitan University introduced an American Football team known as the MMU Eagles.
Manchester also has twoice hockey teams -Manchester Storm andAltrincham Aces both playing out of theAltrincham Ice Dome inAltrincham. In addition, Manchester previously hosted theManchester Phoenix based inDeeside,North Wales. The city was also home to a previous incarnation of theManchester Storm ice hockey club who, in 1997, played in front of the largest audience ever to watch an ice hockey game in UK when 17,245 people saw the Storm defeat theSheffield Steelers 6–2 at theMEN Arena. In 2015 Manchester Storm[30] returned to represent the City of Manchester in the 10-team Elite Ice Hockey League.
Manchester plays host to theNetball Superleague teamManchester Thunder.[31] Founded in 2001 as Northern Thunder they have won 4 Netball Superleague titles including an invincible season in the2022 Netball Superleague.
Manchester also has two roller hockey teams, which have combined and reached the cup final againstBury St. Edmunds (at U13 level only).[32]
Manchester has aUKDBA Dodgeball team, the Manchester Bees Dodgeball Club. The club was formed in 2013 and in their first season won the Division 1 North UK Dodgeball League.[33]
Manchester is home to fourBritish Rowing affiliated clubs. Manchester University Boat Club and Trafford Rowing Club are located on theBridgewater Canal inSale, Greater Manchester, whilst theSalford Quays plays host toAgecroft Rowing Club along with Salford University Boat Club.
Belle Vue National Speedway Stadium inGorton is home to theBelle Vue Aces speedway team.
Manchester is also home to two women'sroller derby teams, theRainy City Roller Derby andManchester Roller Derby, the latter also has a men's andjunior roller derby team. The sport continues to grow in the UK and Manchester and roller derby bouts held in Manchester regularly sell out as of 2011.[34][35]
In 1998,Joanna Thomas she moved to Manchester to being train atBetta Bodies, one of England's top hardcore gyms. She got help fromKerry Kayes, a bodybuilder, owner of Betta Bodies and one of the United Kingdom's top bodybuilding gurus, and Diane Royle, a former Olympic javelin thrower and bodybuilder. At 1998 EFBB Northeast Qualifier, she would again win the middleweight category and quality for the British Championships. Within 6 months of her leaving her education pursuit, at the 1998 EFBB British Championships, Joanna won the lightweight category and overall title and became the youngestBritish female bodybuilder to ever to win an IFBB pro card at the age of 21 years old. Her record that remains unbroke to this day. She spent the next 2 years in Manchester honing her physique, packing on more size, improving her shape and increasing her muscle maturity. In the spring of 2001 she began preparing for her professional debut at the 2001 Jan Tana Classic. In 2001, she left Manchester for Lynchburg, Virginia in order to compete at the 2001 Jan Tana Classic.
Boxing is popular inManchester. World champion boxers who come from Greater Manchester includeWBA lightweight championAnthony Crolla;IBF,WBA andWBO heavyweight championTyson Fury; andIBF andWBA super lightweight, andWBA welterweight championRicky Hatton.
Manchester has also hosted several events forWorld Wrestling Entertainment, asprofessional wrestling is not only popular in Manchester, but in theUnited Kingdom as a whole. Manchester is also the home ofThe British BulldogsDavey Boy Smith andThe Dynamite Kid.
Ludosport, is an International Lightsaber Combat Academy,[36] teaching light saber combat (inspired by the iconic weapon from the Star Wars movies) as an international competitive sport.
Classes started in Manchester[37] in January 2018 and pupils train on a weekly basis, with local instructors who have trained with the parent organisation in Italy "Ludosport International".[38]
They regularly hold introductory "Discovery" Sessions where people can come along to try the sport.[37]
The local classes are part of the UK network of Ludosport UK.[39]
During the COVID-19 lockdown, all classes and competitions were suspended, but it is expected that lessons with good social distancing practices will be resumed (local conditions permitting) during the Autumn of 2021.
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Below is a list of international sporting events that have been held in Manchester at various venues
Spurred on by the sell-out, Ms O'Connor says Manchester is coming round to the sport "slowly but surely and soon we'll have the whole city".
