From rain to reuse: How Manchester City Football Club is revolutionizing pitch irrigation
In 2018, Xylem partnered with Manchester City Football Club (MCFC) to promote awareness of the world’s water challenges and became the club’s official water technology partner. Over the past 7 years, Xylem and MCFC have worked closely to expand the Club’s water stewardship as part of its ambitious sustainability program. Now the partners are teaming up to bring the latest in digital water technology to the pitch – optimizing irrigation and recycling to support water conservation amid growing global water stress.
Professional football’s water opportunity
Natural grass pitches can use up to 23,000 liters of water per day in peak summer. That makes football clubs uniquely positioned to move the needle in water conservation. In recent years, MCFC has teamed with Xylem to upgrade its water recycling and borehole systems for irrigation across the Etihad Stadium facilities.
By making the shift to irrigate with recycled rainwater, MCFC has already saved over 50 million liters of potable water and is on track to halve its use by the end of this year.
Setting the pace in sports water conservation
As part of its bold goal to capture and reuse 100% of stormwater runoff on site by mid-2026, MCFC launched a pilot with Xylem to implement Xylem Vue at the Club’s City Football Academy. The integrated software and analytics platform uses connected sensors and smart meters to deliver real-time visibility and insights into how water moves across the Club’s training facility. By revealing when and where water is being used or lost across the 16.5-pitch campus, Xylem Vue helps MCFC make smarter decisions to optimize irrigation and reduce reliance on public water sources.
Below is an interview with Berry Drijsen, Senior Director, Marketing, Smart Metering International at Xylem about this groundbreaking project.
Q: How can Xylem Vue help Manchester City Football Club solve their day-to-day water challenges?
Xylem Vue is helping the Club conserve water while also reducing costs. In Manchester, businesses and residents pay a surface water fee. This fee covers the cost of removing and treating rainwater that falls onto property and drains into the sewer system.
MCFC is ahead of the game. With advanced water systems in place, they’re able to reuse much of the rainwater that falls on their grounds. This sustainable approach means the Club uses less public water and sends less rainwater into the sewers.
To build on this approach, the Club wanted accurate, real-time water data to better track how much water flows into the public sewer system, making sure they’re paying the right surface water fees.
They also want to use data insights to fine tune the watering of their 16.5 practice fields (yes, the .5 field is just for goalie practice!). By optimizing how they water their pitches, the Club is using less potable water, helping to conserve a vital resource for the community.
Q: Can you describe the Xylem Vue solution you have put in place and the value it’s delivering?
The goal of this pilot is to monitor and measure the Club’s surface water drainage. To get there, we needed to map out their irrigation system in detail: what water was coming in from the public main supply versus the rainwater attenuation tank or the water borehole, what water was being distributed across the training grounds, and what water was being discharged into the public sewers.
As part of this work, we installed sensors to gauge water flow and levels in pipes, upgraded existing water meters to Xylem’s Cordonel Sensus smart meters, and installed our Xylem Avensor digital monitoring solution. We then connected everything in our Xylem Vue platform to provide real-time data and a comprehensive view of the Club’s irrigation system to help them save water, use it more wisely, and protect supply for the local community. It’s a smart, scalable model for urban water management.
This complete system view opens other exciting possibilities for the future, including allowing the Club to track and share stadium water consumption metrics with fans. Looking ahead, the Club hopes to partner with the utility to leverage excess captured rainwater from the training fields to help irrigate parks and clean streets in the community.
Q: How was the collaboration between MCFC and Xylem key to this pilot’s success
That’s a great question. When it comes to solving water challenges, it takes more than just powerful technologies. It takes collaboration. You can install the most sophisticated technology, but if the operators using it daily aren’t comfortable, or it doesn’t serve a practical purpose, then it’s a missed opportunity – and an investment that doesn’t deliver for the customer.
At Xylem, we listened closely to MCFC to truly understand their needs. We helped define their problem, walk through the system with their people, and choose the right technologies to solve their “right now” problem, while also preparing for future improvements.
Xylem’s unique, combined hardware and software expertise made it possible to deliver a solution that will work from day one and can grow over time. Without that close partnership, even the best tech wouldn’t be enough.
Q: Can you talk about what’s next – what opportunities do you see outside of this initial pilot?
This pilot has laid a strong foundation for Manchester City to build on. With Xylem Vue in place, the Club is well positioned to expand its smart water management approach across its facilities.
For example, installing sub-meters near the pitches could help pinpoint leaks quickly and ensure water is used as efficiently as possible. There’s also potential to integrate weather-based irrigation controls, which would further optimize water use based on real-time conditions. The data integrated into the platform can even improve MCFC’s sustainability reporting, making it easier to measure progress towards their goals. These are all natural next steps that reflect the Club’s commitment to water stewardship.
Q: How can the Xylem-MCFC partnership inspire more people to care about and conserve water?
Club manager Pep Guardiola, MCFC players and other club representatives are admired all over the world. They’re using their megaphones to educate people about global water challenges and mobilize them to adopt better water habits. In addition, MCFC owns multiple clubs and is doing an amazing job spreading the word and inspiring action across its global portfolio. It’s so exciting to see Xylem and MCFC’s partnership continue to flourish and make an impact.
We hope our work together will inspire other sports clubs and organizations to harness technology to improve their irrigation systems and embrace water recycling. We also hope to inspire even more football fans to become water stewards and champions!
Learn more about how Xylem Vue’s advanced technologies are transforming water management around the world.