Acronis has renewed its long-term technology partnership with Manchester City, continuing to provide data backup and protection services as elite football clubs face growing digital and cybersecurity demands.
Cybersecurity is no longer a back-office concern in elite sport. It is operational infrastructure.
Acronis has renewed its long-standing partnership with Manchester City, extending a relationship that began in 2018 and has quietly underpinned the club’s data protection strategy during a period of sustained sporting and commercial growth.
Under the renewed agreement, Manchester City will continue using Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud to back up and protect data across its UK-based IT environments.
Why data protection matters in modern football
Elite football clubs now operate as complex digital organisations. Performance analytics, medical data, scouting intelligence, commercial operations, media production, and fan engagement systems all generate and depend on large volumes of sensitive data.
Disruption—whether from ransomware, system failure, or data loss—can affect not only match preparation but regulatory compliance and commercial continuity.
As clubs scale globally, protecting that data has become a strategic necessity rather than a technical afterthought.
A partnership built during expansion
Manchester City first adopted Acronis’ platform as its data needs accelerated alongside on-pitch success and off-pitch growth. According to both parties, the system has allowed the club to scale backup operations without proportionally increasing internal IT resources.
That efficiency has become increasingly important as football organisations operate year-round, across multiple competitions, geographies, and digital channels.
The renewal signals continuity rather than a shift in strategy.
Sports teams as cybersecurity targets
Professional sports organisations have become attractive targets for cyberattacks due to the value of their data and the visibility of disruption. Recent years have seen multiple incidents across leagues involving ransomware and data breaches.
As a result, clubs are increasingly formalising relationships with enterprise-grade cybersecurity providers rather than relying solely on in-house systems.
Manchester City’s continued use of a unified protection platform reflects that trend.
Commercial partnerships, technical stakes
For Acronis, the extension reinforces its positioning in professional sports, where reliability and downtime avoidance are paramount. For Manchester City and City Football Group, it reflects a preference for long-term technical partners over short-term sponsorship turnover.
While such partnerships are often branded as commercial deals, their real value lies in operational resilience.
A wider signal for elite sport
The renewal illustrates how technology partnerships in football are evolving. Once dominated by kit sponsors and consumer brands, clubs are increasingly aligning with infrastructure and security providers that operate largely behind the scenes.
As data becomes central to competitive advantage, so too does the systems that protect it.
For Manchester City, extending the Acronis partnership is not about innovation headlines—it is about ensuring that the digital foundations of elite performance remain intact.
