BEIJING: The pre-season Manchester derby that would have pitted City’s new manager Pep Guardiola against his United counterpart Jose Mourinho was cancelled hours before Monday’s encounter after recent extreme weather made the playing surface at Beijing’s National Stadium unfit for play.

Organisers of the International Champions Cup said the decision to call the match was made in the interests of player safety, and in conjunction with both clubs, the China Football Association and management of the stadium, which was the main venue for the 2008 Olympics.

“The conditions experienced in Beijing on July 19 and July 20 were reported as being some of the most extreme weather conditions the capital of China has experienced in recent history,” said a statement from the organisers.

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

It added that “due to international travel schedules and planned sporting commitments, the match cancellation is definitive and the match will not be re-scheduled.”

Manchester City captain, Vincent Kompany, said that the club staff had been working to get the game on after days of heavy rain in the Chinese capital, but had been defeated.

“We had our groundsman working for 10 days on the pitch, but the conditions were just too dangerous for the players,” said Kompany on Monday on the club’s website.

New United manager Mourinho had criticised conditions at the Bird’s Nest stadium, where torrential rain had soaked the playing surface, and voiced his concerns on the matter prior to the game.

The match would have marked an early renewal of Mourinho’s rivalry with Guardiola, dating back to their days in charge of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively.

The sorry scene followed a chaotic weekend in China for Mourinho’s new club after losing 4-1 to Borussia Dortmund Friday night in Shanghai in their opening, and now only, China tour match.

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.

United will leave Beijing late on Monday as originally planned, while City will fly to the southern city of Shenzhen on Tuesday for Thursday’s game against Borussia Dortmund.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016