Pre-season Manchester derby cancelled in China due to bad weather

The International Champions Cup (ICC) match between English Premier League rivals Manchester City and Manchester United was canceled hours before kick-off on Monday after heavy rain made the pitch unfit for play at Beijing’s National Stadium.

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is sorry for fans after their clash with Manchester United in Beijing was called off.

“We’re moving on now to Shenzhen to play against Borussia Dortmund now, so it’s not finished for us in China, but obviously it’s a big disappointment for us”.

“The committee and both teams make the decision together in the interest of player safety”.

United manager Jose Mourinho had branded the pitch “very bad” in the lead up to the friendly match against Pep Guardiola’s City. After the match, Mourinho said the match was “like Formula One against Formula Three”.

“But in a match it’s more hard so, again, I hope our players and City’s players go home without any kind of injury to start the competitive period well”, Mourinho said.

Guardiola was similarly blunt when asked what he wanted from the match. “We will now focus on delivering a fantastic game in Shenzhen”, Ferran Soriano, chief executive of Man City said.

United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said: “It’s extremely disappointing not to be able to play the game in this unbelievable stadium but the recent torrential rain would have caused problems anywhere in the world and has left the pitch unplayable. An appropriate refund policy will be put in place by our local partners for those fans”. On Friday, the Red Devils suffered a huge defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the opening match of the International Champions Cup.

Half of United’s squad were on a plane which had to make a forced landing between Shanghai and Beijing on Saturday because of a violent storm in the capital.

Meanwhile yesterday’s makeshift training venue struggled to cope with the invasion of hundreds of media to cover the teams’ every move.

United boss Jose Mourinho also had to hold his prematch news conference by the side of the training pitch because of the heat and cramped conditions in the press room.

Thousands of fans were already gathering outside the Bird’s Nest Stadium to see what would have been the first ever Manchester derby outside Britain.