Five seems a lot, I agree. Three seemed a reasonable requirement to me. By the way, I myself am an overseas supporter, although I admittedly don't fly across an ocean for matches.
I haven't read through the entire thread — I've got a bit of a life — but, you know, it's probably been said that there are a number of ways round this. What the club wants to avoid is people simply coming for the one marquee match of, say, Liverpool, or United, and blocking out people who have been coming for years and years, who went through the dark days, who can no longer afford a season card, and who would give their eye teeth to attend one or both of those matches. And that doesn't seem to me to be completely out of order, frankly. I hold a season card, I can't of course get over for the 18 home matches, but I make absolutely sure that my seat is never empty. And I don't only come over for the Liverpool/United/Chelsea games. Just saying.
As I say, there are ways round this.
By the way, just a coda to this. As far as satellite tv coverage goes, the scheduling of the matches is often neither in the interest of the players or above all of the match-going fans. It is entirely in the interests of people (i.e. among others, overseas supporters of City, but not only, of course) who are in the States or in China, or suchlike places, who want to watch the match on a screen. That's determined by the companies themselves, of course, but I imagine they sit down and work it out with the clubs involved.