European football’s governing body has been, at best, clumsy in its handling of City’s FFP efforts and supporter issues, but the club will need to embrace the Champions League.
As far as Manchester City and its fans are concerned, UEFA’s rap sheet is a long one.
The 2014 announcement that the club had fallen foul of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations came as a shock, given it had worked closely with the governing body to avoid any breaches. When it was discovered UEFA had moved the goalposts and changed the all-important Annex XI, which City had expected would get it out of jail, it did not go down well at the Etihad Stadium.
The application of Annex XI, a clause that meant wages paid to players signed before 2010 (when FFP did not exist) would not count toward the 2012 financial year, was altered only once City already had submitted their accounts. Having previously been on course to stay under FFP’s maximum deficit, City was now around 80 million pounds over.
Rather than pursue legal action – despite standing on solid ground – the Blues accepted a number of sanctions that included, among other things, a reduction in their earnings from European competition for two years, a 60 million euro fine (later reduced to €20m) and restrictions on transfer and wage expenditure.
A burning sense of injustice endures, but that is not the only reason the Champions League anthem will be booed ahead of Wednesday’s game against Dynamo Kiev.
Just four months after being hit with those sanctions, City fans were shut out of a group stage clash with CSKA Moscow, despite many having already booked up their flights and accommodation. UEFA, three weeks before the match, closed the Arena Khimki for three matches as punishment for racist chanting. City fans who had made the trip were turned away at the gates, and even barred from an office block that overlooked the stadium, but a crowd of around 650 people – many of them vocal CSKA fans, drinking beer on the terraces (itself a UEFA rule breach) – were let into the ground and watched the match from the main stand. Worse, UEFA declined to take any action after City, again furious, wrote a letter of complaint.
“Why the hell do we not have any fans here? What have our fans done wrong? There’s no fairness in it,” Vincent Kompany fumed after the match, summing up the feeling around the club.
So there was little wonder City expected similar when it was pitted against Kiev in this season’s competition. The Ukrainian champion was halfway through a two-match stadium closure, again for racist abuse, when the last-16 draw was made back in December, meaning there was little point in City fans booking time off work for a February trip to Kiev.
UEFA eventually overturned the stadium ban, allowing both home and away supporters to attend, but City believes it is yet another botch job. With the announcement coming on Feb. 2, three weeks before the game, it was too late for many to make it and only around 700 fans are expected to travel.
It was the handling of the situation in Moscow that sparked a protest from the 1894 supporters group, one that urged fans to turn their backs on the iconic Champions League anthem but quickly evolved into the loud booing and whistling that continues to this day.
That farcical story in October, when UEFA was forced to investigate after a particularly tetchy delegate had noted booing ahead of the home game against Sevilla in his official report, was met with bemusement from both club and fan base. To the governing body’s credit, it did not lead to further sanctions.
But despite everything, it is surely time to bury the hatchet. Yes, ineptitude in Nyon has seemed to hit City harder than most – many would say too often to be a coincidence – but the Champions League will be integral to the plans this club has for the future.
Pep Guardiola has been brought in to make City a serious contender at the top level during the next three years, and big European nights, when the Blues will be expected to stand toe-to-toe with the very best teams, should become a regular event.
By now, City is no stranger to facing Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, clubs it would have only faced in preseason friendlies before Sheikh Mansour’s takeover. But the Blues always have been underdogs on the pitch, a situation not helped by the general apathy toward UEFA in the stands that has ensured the crowds have been relatively low and the atmosphere relatively flat. City is still the outsider.
Dramatic turnarounds against Sevilla and Borussia Monchengladbach this season have provided thrilling moments of late drama, but in terms of the big events that have captured the imagination, there have been few of those fabled European nights that have graced Old Trafford, Anfield and even Stamford Bridge over the years.
As City enters a new era, one with designs on domestic domination and success on the continent, the Champions League will play a major role in the club’s future. Despite everything, it’s time for fans to embrace it
Time for Manchester City fans to drop UEFA grudge
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