Do City fans still hate UEFA?

• For nearly ten years, Manchester City fans have been whistling the Champions League anthem over various disputes with UEFA.

• Today, some voices are raised to put an end to these boos, especially as the whistles are less powerful each time.

• Beyond that, it is the general atmosphere on the evenings of C1 that questions even as the fans dream of winning the cup with big ears.

We'll call this the Skyblues Paradox. While they would sell father, mother and

porridge recipe

to finally win the big-eared cup, Manchester City supporters have a very special relationship with this competition. Or rather with its organizer, UEFA. For several years, in fact, City fans have gotten into the habit of booing the Champions League anthem before every home game, and Wednesday's meeting against PSG should be no exception.

Even if Mauricio Pochettino, who is said to be closer and closer to joining the enemy of United, should also be entitled to his little personal dedication.

But after years of whistling against Ceferin and his institution, some believe that the time has come to put an end to this rather clumsy folklore.

So,

The real reasons Man City fans boo UEFA's Champions League anthem - and why it's time to stop |

@ DomFarrell1986 #mcfc https://t.co/2NcuLjlzSO

- Manchester City News (@ManCityMEN) November 18, 2021

Anger in three acts

Before settling the debate, let's first take a tour of the DeLorean block to go back to the origins of the “boo”.

It was long believed that the Etihad's boos were bitter after UEFA's attacks on Man City in the many cases related to financial fair play.

“Que nenni” immediately cuts us Kevin Parker, the general secretary of the official group of City supporters.

“It goes back a lot longer than that,” he assures us.

In reality, the Skyblues' anger rose crescendo from 2012 and was done in three acts.

• Act I, the double standard, which does not pass with the Citizens

In 2012, UEFA drew the wrath of City fans for the first time after two controversial disciplinary decisions.

When the Skyblues received a 30,000 euros fine for a trivial story of delay (one minute) of the players returning from the locker room during a Europa League match against Sporting, FC Porto was only fined 20,000 euros for the cries of monkeys of some of these supporters against Mario Balotelli and Yaya Touré, during a Porto-City played a month earlier at the Estadio do Dragoes.

• Act II, the point of no return

During the 2014-2015 season, it was a C1 match at CSKA Moscow that definitely ignited the powder.

This meeting was to be played behind closed doors (again for a story of howling monkeys against Yaya Touré), but things did not go exactly as planned.

While UEFA refused to reimburse Skyblues fans who bought their plane tickets, match tickets and their hotel rooms (before the closed-door decision was taken), it finally authorized some 650 supporters of CSKA to attend the meeting, which the supporters of the Citizens have never digested.

• Act III, the UEFA delegate puts on a layer

A few weeks after CSKA-Gate, in a match against Sevilla FC, as the boos grew more and more in the Etihad, the fourth referee reported this to his superiors.

"Even if no sanction was taken to sanction the boos, it hardened the position of City fans against the European body," says Dominic Farrell, author of a recent article on the subject in the

.

"It doesn't make much sense anymore"

In his paper, this Mancunian journalist explains that it may be time to move on. On the other hand, unlike Kevin Parker, he admits that some supporters also whistle to protest against the UEFA sanctions against Manchester City within the framework of the FPF. “In fact, there are so many different reasons that you get a little lost in them. Each supporter has his own and, upon arrival, it gives the impression that the message is a little watered down. And then, at the beginning, the whistles were really very loud, it added a real special atmosphere in the stadium. Now, it's more of a token thing that some fans use before a game. Against Bruges, this season, the boos more or less died out halfway through the anthem, it doesn't make much sense ”.

“Personally, I don't whistle,” says Kevin Parker.

But I think the fans have the right to make their own choice.

Who knows, maybe the boos will stop when UEFA has put some order in its house ”

But the "boos" are not everything, there is something else.

If he respects the choice of whistlers, Pep Guardiola complained at the start of the season of the general lack of atmosphere and the low attendance on the nights of Champions League matches at home.

Against Leipzig, in September, they were only 38,000 in a stadium that can hold 55,000.

It is true that the club is regularly mocked by opposing supporters for the Ehpad atmosphere that would reign at the Etihad.

For Dominic Farrell, “this reputation is unfair”.

“You forget how loyal and numerous City fans were at the stadium when the club stagnated in the lower divisions in the 90s, when Fergusson's Manchester United were on top of the world.

But with the buyout of the club in 2008 [by the sovereign fund of the United Arab Emirates], it awakened the resentment of supporters of other clubs and that did not help this bad reputation ”.

According to him, we could make the same observation during certain matches at Anfiled or Old Trafford.

The club tries to remedy the problem

A point of view fully shared by Kevin Parker. “Of course it can happen that the atmosphere is not crazy but, during big games, especially at night as is the case in the Champions League, the atmosphere can be really very good, he swears. he. And then, if we are sometimes a little silent, it is because we are captivated by the fantastic game proposed by Pep Guardiola's team ”. Touch. Despite everything, a little more atmosphere would not displease some, like Ed Sheeran, unconditional fan of the Skyblues. During the first leg at the end of September in Paris, the singer was captivated by the incandescent atmosphere of the Parc des Princes.

“I'm going to see a lot of football in England, but I've never seen that, PSG fans are crazy!

They had smoke bombs, they were jumping and singing.

I said to myself: "Ok this is just for the beginning".

But they did that for two hours!

Tuesday night!

That is, these guys were at work in the morning.

It's very impressive. "According to Dominic Farrell, the City club are trying to remedy this. In particular, they have created a special area in the stadium so that the group of supporters of the" 1894 "can" make tifos on cup nights. Europe. ”“ The one before the match against Bruges, punctuated by a song from Oasis, was really cool. ”The best thing is that we make our own idea. judge by piece.

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