The English Football Association (FA) has today (Wednesday) confirmed that King Power Stadium, home of Premier League club Leicester City, will host the 2022-23 Community Shield.
The FA has been seeking an alternative venue for the traditional curtain raiser to the domestic season with its usual host, Wembley Stadium, ruled out of contention due to it staging the final of UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 over the same weekend.
King Power Stadium will now see reigning Premier League champion Manchester City take on FA Cup winner Liverpool on July 30.
This year’s game will be the 100th edition of the Community Shield, with it last being played away from Wembley in 2012, when Aston Villa’s Villa Park was host during the Olympic Games football competition at the national stadium.
Villa Park, along with Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, West Ham United’s London Stadium and Leeds United’s Elland Road, had all been linked to the hosting rights for this year’s game.
Leicester City chief executive, Susan Whelan, said: “Being able to host such a prestigious fixture in our stadium is fantastic news for the city and further underlines Leicester City’s long-term commitment to establish Leicestershire as a home for high profile sporting events.”
Leicester is currently in the midst of an expansion plan for King Power Stadium, and it was reported at the weekend that a decision date for the project has slipped again. Further details emerged in November regarding Leicester’s plans to expand King Power Stadium, with the north and south stands set to form part of the wide-ranging project.
Leicester confirmed in October that it had submitted its hybrid planning application to Leicester City Council. Details of the project were first revealed in July, with the plans including a proposal to expand King Power Stadium’s capacity from 32,000 to 40,000 and introduce a mixed-use development that will feature a new arena.
The submission of a planning application followed an extensive pre-application public consultation, which ran from August to September. Leicester City Council’s consultation over the submission was due to end on February 2, with a target decision date set for February 10.
However, it was reported in March that the consultation would run until March 31, with a new target date for a decision set at April 20. The delay was said to have come about due to further documents being presented since the filing of the planning application.
The Leicester Mercury newspaper said the target decision date has now slipped for a second time, to July 31.
Image: Leicester City
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