Booing the Champions League Anthem

markbmcfc said:
They are booing because they a hurting and want to vent. As you say, register your feelings. I booed it, the first time. I hate them just as much as you or anyone else.

I'm merely arguing that it's time to move on, our feelings have been registered, the minute the TV cameras weren't allowed to film the fans so our protests couldn't be seen was a morale victory that our protests had been heard. The point is though, it's never going to do anything above and beyond that, and at this point, it's been booed enough (in my opinion) and subsequent attempts at protest will be just as irrelevant. Why do something that's irrelevant?

People have every right to boo whatever the hell they want, just as those of us that think it's pointless have every right to call it so.

Unfortunately, the more it happens, the less effect it has on protest and more it just looks pathetic.
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I'm not sure about that, I still think the booing causes discussion and raises awareness, even if it's at a very small level. Plus, the further we progress in CL, the more of an issue it will become. Imagine if we ever got to the final, and the boos could still be heard?

I suppose you could argue it's time to move on, but it's not like we are protesting against a specific incident that we can move on from. The general disdain for UEFA still exists, and if we stop booing, it (arguably) looks much worse, and the guys at UEFA will have quietened down the City protesters.
 
softlad said:
@The blue phantom

Let me explain it for you.

Last season, after the CL draw I bought flights, hotel and a visa for a game in Moscow. You needed to apply for a visa around 3-4 weeks before the game to get it processed in order to attend. After this time, UEFA in their infinite wisdom decided to punish CSKA for their fans racism by closing the ground to any spectators. This meant if you already had a VISA or Flights booked, there was fuck all you could do to get your money back.

As it turned out, the ground wasnt actually closed. Corporate sponsors in their hundreds were allowed in, CSKA fans got in, city fans didnt. So who actually got penalised? I did, to the tune of about £500. The fine levied on CSKA wasnt distributed amongst us fans who had lost out. To date ive emailed UEFA a number of times to ask them to re-imburse me. Do you know how many responses ive had? 0. I even considered legal action, but as they're based in Switzerland, it'd have been a massive ballache.

So, the debacle didnt make me lose my love for City (although I am still pretty disgusted that they've done next to nothing to help) but it showed me what I probably already knew that UEFA are a bunch of bent bastards who dont give a fuck about the fans. I'd dare to say you'd be a bit possed off in my shoes.

Ive tried to complain elsewhere, booing is all im left with now.
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On those points mate fair enough and I guess they have been cunts, although I do think booing still gets us nowhere.
 
dickie davies said:
Whilst UEFA are stopping me buying a pint, I'll continue to boo
And when they allow booze to be sold, I'll continue to boo because I can't get served
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Unfortunately for me I hate Heineken,but I also don`t drink Cider or John Smiths.They did away with Amstel (was it ??) so I don`t have much option but to drink the piss water that is called Heineken.Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
 
markbmcfc said:
These are rather silly posts, not something that should be supported or applauded.

A few points here, firstly, the dig about half and half scarfs is a huge sweeping generalisation and completely inaccurate. To quote one of @Damocles favourite videos "It's ok to not like things". It doesn't make people who think the booing is stupid, a plastic half and half scarf selfie taking lunatic. I think the booing is stupid, small time and petty, but i'd also gladly set fire to any half and half scarf I see or selfie taking moron for that matter. Labelling people who don't like the booing in that category is wrong and shouldn't be used to support your opinion.

Onto the root cause of this. We all know and agree UEFA is the rectum of European Football. A loathsome, corrupt organisation that any true football fan will not have a single second of time for. We are all together in this view. The examples you used, are indicative of the conduct we all hate yet sadly, expect from them.

Now, does us booing the CL anthem change any of that, or have any affect whatsoever on the conduct of that organisation. No. To feel it does is impressively deluded.

Platini walks into work one day, thinks, you know what, City fans booed our anthem last night. We should publicly apologise to them, reimburse their fans, refund the clubs fines and ensure none of our stupid behavior continues ever again. Can you imagine a world where that would ever happen? No, so why bother?

It's not a case of sweeping it under the rug, it's case of taking the high road and not lowering ourselves to that level. I remember someone asking Txiki during a Q&A why we don't respond to jibes from UEFA, Mourinho etc and he said "because some people have their behavior, and we have ours". That sums it up for me. Rise above it, be better than them.

I don't expect fans to cheer it, that would be weird, but booing it makes us look small time, petty and given our performances in the competition, it looks sour grapes. There is absolutely nothing good coming out of us booing it. So why bother?

It's hardly sending shockwaves of change throughout UEFA, and it never will. Nor does it need to, because one day we'll win it, and I for one won't give a fuck about UEFA.
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Right I'm going to go off the beaten track a bit here.

I don't know about yourself, but I'm from Manchester. I'm incredibly proud of my city's history which has had a big influence on my personality. We've always been ahead of the pack when it comes to social changes - firstly in terms of the industrial revolution, then the likes of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were welcomed here, who helped create an ideology that liberated the working classes. We spearheaded the suffragettes movement and in the latter half of the 20th century encouraged a large gay community to fight for their rights. We're a multi-cultural city now with a large number of Asian, eastern European, Jewish and African immigrants who've helped us to become the power-house of the North - we're arguably the only region that can stand up to London and have influenced the country throughout the past 250 years.

It's safe to say that Mancunians are proud to stand up for what the believe in, and to head back to the point, UEFA stand for the complete opposite of all that. They're corrupt, they're racist, sexist, homophobic. It's fundamentally ingrained into UEFA, but they don't make any attempts to change that.

Then to top it off they come to our City and blast their anthem that represents all those things as loud as they can and expect us to turn a blind eye? No chance.

That's before you look at the wrongdoings towards our club. They're a truly despicable organisation and every chance to show our disgust should be grabbed with both hands.


To say it doesn't do or won't achieve anything is wrong. It lets the world know what we think of the organisation rather than giving the impression we're happy with them, and if we're alone in doing it then so what, it wouldn't be the first time we as a City have pushed for something that eventually lead to a change across the rest of the Britain and beyond.
 
Manchester33 said:
Right I'm going to go off the beaten track a bit here.

I don't know about yourself, but I'm from Manchester. I'm incredibly proud of my city's history which has had a big influence on my personality. We've always been ahead of the pack when it comes to social changes - firstly in terms of the industrial revolution, then the likes of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were welcomed here, who helped create an ideology that liberated the working classes. We spearheaded the suffragettes movement and in the latter half of the 20th century encouraged a large gay community to fight for their rights. We're a multi-cultural city now with a large number of Asian, eastern European, Jewish and African immigrants who've helped us to become the power-house of the North - we're arguably the only region that can stand up to London and have influenced the country throughout the past 250 years.

It's safe to say that Mancunians are proud to stand up for what the believe in, and to head back to the point, UEFA stand for the complete opposite of all that. They're corrupt, they're racist, sexist, homophobic. It's fundamentally ingrained into UEFA, but they don't make any attempts to change that.

Then to top it off they come to our City and blast their anthem that represents all those things as loud as they can and expect us to turn a blind eye? No chance.

That's before you look at the wrongdoings towards our club. They're a truly despicable organisation and every chance to show our disgust should be grabbed with both hands.


To say it doesn't do or won't achieve anything is wrong. It lets the world know what we think of the organisation rather than giving the impression we're happy with them, and if we're alone in doing it then so what, it wouldn't be the first time we as a City have pushed for something that eventually lead to a change across the rest of the Britain and beyond.
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I'm with you all the way until the first sentence of your final paragraph. FWIW, I'm also from Manchester.

I really don't disagree with any of your reasoning as to why the anthem is booed. We simply disagree with the effect it has.

I'd also like to point out that I wish you were right and I was wrong. Alas, I don't feel that way unfortunately and think it negatively affects the image of City more than anything, but we can agree to disagree :)
 
The club and the players know exactly why the anthem is booed, they have done absolutely nothing to dissuade us from doing it.
 
I think it is one of the things opposing players will take from the game...Say Player A plays against us in CL and then 2 years later we try to buy him, as we are the only team to do it he might think it was a bit weird, not saying a deciding factor but not a great plus...If we booed it and then the atmosphere was rocking, I would not worry but as we do and then the atmosphere is flat, I don't think it makes it stand out as a great team to play CL for.

UEFA are bent but we have no FFP, in a group without Munich and got a great chance of being top seed next time, we should move on.

I think a good run in the competition and a few memorable nights is what is needed until we achieve that as a group we have only really experienced negatives in the competition and so don't really like the CL
 
As I understand it, we never booed specifically because we thought we got a raw deal, we did it because we thought UEFA were bent full stop, regardless of who benefited from it or not. That still stands.
We can't just stop booing because FFP sanctions are lifted and we've got a better group. We didn't like the seeding system either, and although we're now pot 2, it's still a stitch up for any other new club arriving.

I do agree that with more success, I suspect many fans' stance might soften, because there's a bit of hypocrisy in us all, but I actually like the idea of us doing well and still booing!
 
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FanchesterCity said:
As I understand it, we never booed specifically because we thought we got a raw deal, we did it because we thought UEFA were bent full stop, regardless of who benefited from it or not.
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It started, as others have said, after the fiasco in Moscow, with our fans (who weren't banned) being denied entry (and even ejected when spotted inside the ground) whereas their fans (who were banned) seemed to be there in number. The Bayern fans were similarly affected and neither got any compensation and they joined in when they played here. Not only that but CSKA had their punishment reduced rather than increased.
 
markbmcfc said:
.....I don't expect fans to cheer it, that would be weird, but booing it makes us look small time, petty and given our performances in the competition, it looks sour grapes. There is absolutely nothing good coming out of us booing it. So why bother?
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I'm all for the booing. I think it's important that any UEFA representatives present know that we are pissed off. It might not make any difference to their opinion, but we should make a stand and make them know we are standing, however small and ineffectual that stand is.

However, your point about the sour grapes does worry me somewhat. If we continue to struggle in the CL, will most people just think we're whinging?

Ideally we'd win the thing and then boo our heads off when Platini came out with the cup, a bit like we booed Richard Scudamore a couple of years back.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
It started, as others have said, after the fiasco in Moscow, with our fans (who weren't banned) being denied entry (and even ejected when spotted inside the ground) whereas their fans (who were banned) seemed to be there in number. The Bayern fans were similarly affected and neither got any compensation and they joined in when they played here. Not only that but CSKA had their punishment reduced rather than increased.
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This was certainly the trigger and Platini and co have never expressed any understanding of what fans shelled out to follow the team to Moscow only to find that they are to be punished much more than the Russians. This is the most raw, painful grievance for City fans but it is only one of many. The continuous attempt to make sure that City cannot compete equally is a disgrace. Last season we had to choose from 21 players while Bayern could choose from 25, a situation repeated whwn we (surprise, surprise) drew Barcelona out of he hat. The Catalans were known to have been guilty of clear fraud with the transfer of Neymar the year before, then they had spent £75 million on Suarez, who was one of four purchases made in the 2014 window to play - despite being under a transfer ban. City's spending was restricted to £49 million and our squad restricted to 21 to their 25. Fair play, Platini, you twat. The attitude of City fans is fully justified - support the club and hate UEFA.
 
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