Our relationship with the Champions League

[Colin Bells Boots]

Yes. Last night I must admit I fell in love with the competition. For so many years my rag mates and dipper mates would go on about "European nights" and say they were above all else and yesterday I finally understood what they meant. Amazing.

You were doing alright but to then mention the rags and dipper mates eulogising about the competition simply took all the credibility away.

Would they be as enthusiastic if they had never won the thing , I'm not so sure .

it's a way of making themselves feel relevant imo .

 

[CitizenTID]

Can't see it anytime soon. Booing might fade out over the next couple years. I might be more positive about the competition after that game if I didn't have the feeling the ref wanted Barca to win it. Luckily we still managed to beat them 11 v 12 somehow.

 

[br88]

I agree Ric. Just said something similar on the post match thread. We needed to win on a big European night against a Madrid or Barcelona in a meaningful game so that the fans and players can believe they are at the same level. I genuinely think before last night our players and fans would consider City in the next bracket down from those two and Bayern. I think everything changed last night.

Great post.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

Absolutely not.

I think the format is bogus, the decisions made by UEFA are Stalinesque, the seeding is corrupt and the favouritism shown by officials laughably clear.

Even if you ignore the treatment City have received from UEFA in terms of FFP and fines for racism/timekeeping many of the above concerns devalue the competition in my eyes.

Give me the old European Cup and I might find it more appealing.

I agree with most of this. I still can't warm to it properly. It's hard to forget everything UEFA have thrown at us. That might seem a small time comment, but they have fucked us over in the past few years, no arguement about it. I'll never forget platini saying he doesn't want teams like city winning the champions league. Just think how many more UEFA officials are saying stuff like this.

 

[blueparrot]

I've never had an issue with the competition because of the governing body I always want to do well. If the governing bodies put me off competitions the FA, and Premier league would be off as well.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

I agree with most of this. I still can't warm to it properly. It's hard to forget everything UEFA have thrown at us. That might seem a small time comment, but they have fucked us over in the past few years, no arguement about it. I'll never forget platini saying he doesn't want teams like city winning the champions league. Just think how many more UEFA officials are saying stuff like this.

And I thought it was me as I'm ( paranoid - apparently ) or just looking for things that don't exist.

 

[CitizenTID]

Absolutely not.

I think the format is bogus, the decisions made by UEFA are Stalinesque, the seeding is corrupt and the favouritism shown by officials laughably clear.

Even if you ignore the treatment City have received from UEFA in terms of FFP and fines for racism/timekeeping many of the above concerns devalue the competition in my eyes.

Give me the old European Cup and I might find it more appealing.

This as well, it'll all change if they start to allow stadiums to sell alcohol and when refs aren't so apparently biased. It's not just refs against us, refs have been helping Barca out for years. There were allegations last year I think it was that La Liga linesmen were told to favour Real Madrid. Not to sound discriminatory, but if La Liga has a problem with it, makes you wonder about Hungarian refs and other such footballing countries.

 

[stadiumcat]

Absolutely not.

I think the format is bogus, the decisions made by UEFA are Stalinesque, the seeding is corrupt and the favouritism shown by officials laughably clear.

Even if you ignore the treatment City have received from UEFA in terms of FFP and fines for racism/timekeeping many of the above concerns devalue the competition in my eyes.

Give me the old European Cup and I might find it more appealing.

Absolutely agree 100%.

 

[domalino]

I don't believe that booing the competition and engaging in it are mutually exclusive.


There's been this argument made that the fanbase doesn't engage, and booing is a symbol of that - and while that's true that some boo-ers are ambivalent about the competition, others like me, have booed their hearts out but still desperately want to win, even if it's just as the ultimate fuck you to an organisation that doesn't want us to win it.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

It's such a thoroughly corrupt competition it's not even funny. And not corrupt in the sort of brown envelope under the table way (although it could easily be that too), openly corrupt by design. The draw isn't rigged, it's just designed to be as non-random as possible while being presented as a random draw. The whole format of the competition is specifically designed to favour certain teams. And I don't particularly have a problem with the format itself. I quite like the group stages followed by knockout format, it's just the way they decide the groups.