Liverpool and Manchester City will contest the 2022 Community Shield but viewers and fans will take note of a major difference this year: the annual football season curtain-raiser is not being played out at its traditional home of Wembley.
Instead, the teams will run out at Leicester City's home, King Power Stadium, on Saturday, July 30 (5pm kick-off), with Premier League champions City taking on FA Cup winners Liverpool to win the first piece of silverware of the 2022/23 campaign.
That's because Wembley is unavailable because it is hosting the Women's Euro 2022 final between England and Germany on Sunday, July 31. The last time the Community Shield was staged away from Wembley was 10 years ago in 2012, when Villa Park hosted the event because Wembley was hosting the 2012 London Olympics football tournament final between Mexico and Brazil on the same weekend.
So, why Leicester this year? King Power Stadium's capacity is 32,000, which is less than half the capacity of Wembley, but staging the game - the 100th FA Community Shield - further north than London makes it more appealing to both sets of supporters, especially in light of the travel difficulties Reds and City fans experienced during April's FA Cup semi-final at Wembley when direct rail services to London were cancelled that weekend to contribute to thousands of empty seats at the ground.
King Power was actually chosen ahead of Arsenal ’s Emirates Stadium, Leeds United’s Elland Road, West Ham United’s London Stadium and Villa Park as the venue for this year’s edition.
The fact the Foxes are the current Community Shield reigning champions may also have had an impact on the location too. Leicester beat Pep Guardiola’s side 1-0 in last year’s showdown at Wembley, thanks to Kelechi Iheanacho’s 89th-minute penalty.
Manchester City will now be bidding to win the title for the seventh time, while Jurgen Klopp will want to finally win it at the third attempt having lost in his previous two attempts against City and Arsenal.
The two sides most recently faced each other in the Shield in 2019, when City won 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 draw after extra time, where Joel Matip cancelled out Raheem Sterling’s 12th-minute opener after 77 minutes at Wembley.
