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1:00 AM 31st January 2025
sports

Community Foundation Takeover Day Confirmed For MK Dons Fixture

Football
Photo: Bradford City FC
Photo: Bradford City FC
Bradford City AFC will host its first-ever Community Takeover Day on Saturday February 22 when the Bantams host MK Dons at the University of Bradford Stadium.

Originally scheduled for November, the Takeover Day was moved after the postponement of Bradford City v Accrington Stanley.

Bradford will gather as a city to celebrate the work of the club’s charitable arm, the Bradford City FC Community Foundation.

The day will be marked by events showcasing the Foundation’s work in the city. The University of Bradford Stadium will welcome hundreds of local people, including pupils from schools, competition winners, rising stars from junior clubs, attendees from social outreach groups and many more, united in celebrating the impact the Foundation has had, and continues to have.

This will also form the Foundation's celebrations as part of EFL Community Weekends, when EFL in the Community, under which the Foundation operates as a CCO (Club Community Organisation), shines a light on the great work it and its partner organisations do.

Foundation CEO and former City striker Ian Ormondroyd will also be interviewed at half-time.

The TL Dallas Community Stand will house nearly 1,500 attendees from across the Foundation’s projects, programmes and partners, to cheer on the Bantams.

A joint venture between the Foundation, Club and long-time Club sponsor TL Dallas and Co Ltd., the stand is now a dedicated, alcohol-free community stand which welcomes non-typical, usually first-time fans from areas of high social deprivation to the University of Bradford Stadium.

The Bradford City FC Community Foundation was established in 1988 by the PFA and has been under the stewardship of former City star Ian Ormondroyd since 1999.

It will now celebrate its inaugural Takeover Day, as the Club and Foundation align to spread the word about the Foundation’s work.

Now celebrating his 25th year at the helm, Ormondroyd said:

We are grateful to the Club for finding us a new date that allows us to celebrate our work, front and centre, in the unique atmosphere of a City home game.

Since establishing ourselves as the official charity of the club, and seeing our organisation expand from a handful of staff to a large operation which delivers sporting and non-sporting programmes and projects across the city, we are proud to have become a key cog in the Bradford system.

"The Takeover Day is our chance to celebrate all we have already achieved, and to establish further connections and awareness among the City fanbase and members of the local community, as we continue to grow in size and influence.

In the past year alone, the Foundation has worked with over 23,000 participants, across 44 individual projects. Among these was the establishment of a dedicated food bank, alongside partners Penny Appeal, BCAFC and BCAFC Women and Girls, and local business Bradford Lifts; the opening of a dementia and Parkinson’s-friendly Friendship Cafe which runs weekly; numerous social action and awareness campaigns; and ongoing national campaigns run in conjunction with the Premier League, National Citizen Service and the Peer Action Collective.

The Foundation also oversees the running of Bradford City AFC’s Women and Girls and Disability football teams.

It runs an in-house education provision, allowing students to combine their studies with football, and operates the newly-opened Bantams Clubhouse, a dedicated junior FanZone.

Bradford City AFC CEO, Ryan Sparks, said:

Our new dedicated Community Takeover fixture at the University of Bradford Stadium will highlight the importance of the club’s impact in the local and wider communities.

It aims to showcase the incredible, vital work the Foundation undertakes every single day as the official charity of Bradford City AFC. We work closely, together, to ensure we carry out our duties as key stakeholders in the city of Bradford.

The Foundation is running numerous events to mark the day, including:

The capacity opening of their dedicated TL Dallas Community Stand, which will house nearly 1,500 attendees from across the Foundation’s projects, programmes and partners

A warm-up shirt design competition, with City players wearing a shirt which was designed by a pupil from a local school, and chosen from over 1,000 entries, before the game

Competition winners will be walking out with City stars as mascots, and welcoming them onto the pitch as flagbearers in a guard of honour

A social media competition for all attendees at the game, who share a photo of themselves at the match, tag the Foundation’s accounts, and use the hashtag #CommunityTakeover

CEO Ian Ormondroyd shall go pitchside at half-time to address the crowd.

Davide Longo, Bradford City AFC’s Chief Commercial Officer, said:

It’s imperative that the Club and Foundation are working in collaboration, so together we can build a thriving and inclusive community, where everyone can have opportunities to be a part of our club through the great work of the community foundation.

Providing matchday opportunities such as this initiative can only benefit children and young people by enriching their lives in a positive way.