Champions League Haters

[WestGorton]

City need to try and win it. I was really happy last night as it was also a brilliant match like PSG and Bayern the night before. I think strangely it's better with no crowds.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

I hate it.
I have no time for a tournament that calls itself such whilst allowing a final to be contested by a team who hadn’t been champions for thirty years against a team who hadn’t been champions for over 60 years.

 

[BamberBridgeBlue]

I hate the Champions League largely because the body that runs it hates my club, so its purely reciprocal.

I wonder how many of those Champions League fans are involved in an abusive relationship in their private lives too?

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

Put me down as a hater. It's a rotten, corrupt competition for the same "elite" clubs to compete in every year. It's designed so that teams like Arsenal and Liverpool can be in an "elite" competition by finishing 4th for years on the trot. Woe betide anyone who gate crashes the competition like us and PSG. It's not about merit, it's about protecting a cartel of clubs.

I watched the PSG v Bayern and obviously our game last night. Let's be honest, there's not too much else to do is there? The PSG game was good as was ours.

I want City to win every game and every trophy. For me the PL is the one which carries the most kudos as you play 38 games against all kinds of teams and the PL is the strongest in the world. There's no easy games and the team who wins it is undoubtedly the best team in England.

This is where I am not a fan of the CL. Here's why:

Firstly, the group games are turkey games - we know 90% of the time which 2 teams will qualify. It's just done for £££.

Secondly, the standard of refereeing is appalling. We get referees from countries who don't have decent teams. They've never refereed a good player. We see fouls unpunished, strange cards.

Thirdly, VAR. Yes I know it's also used in the PL but I've seen decisions that are just plain odd.

Fourthly, there are quite a few teams (eg Porto and Athletico) who play the most appalling anti-football there is. Cynical, nasty teams who bore and grind through games. The way they play is abysmal to watch and far worse than any team in the PL.

So I will get excited when City play, but honestly I'm not that bothered if we win it or not!

 

[Gundog’s Gundog]

From time to time you get absolutely brilliant games in the CL probably better than any domestic games but that doesn’t change my distaste for the UEFA executive or how they take themselves absurdly seriously or the barely concealed bias in favour of the old guard of clubs or the coefficient nonsense or the rules stipulating who can play who. Factor in all that and the luck factor necessary to win any cup competition and that means that for me it will always be so much more enjoyable to win the league.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

The league is and always will be the priority for me, as a supporter. That being said, the players are clearly desperate to win it and that, in turn, makes me want to win it.

The big domestic leagues are a better sign of a team's quality but there's no doubting that the Champions League delivers great entertainment.

 

[Blue Mist]

To me it isn't about hating the Champions League, it is about hating the corrupt cartel that run it. The David Gills of this world, Tebas, the Italian knob that said Atalanta shouldn't be in it. I hate the whole stinking cesspit, mired in corruption desperately trying to bleed the game dry. The games themselves, even though we have be screwed many times, are City matches so will always have my support

 

[Lavinda Past]

Football is football. Some games are good, some bad, some brilliant and some awful. I've seen brilliant matches on Cringle Fields in the Sunday League, I've seen dreadful matches in the PL.

To suggest that games in the CL are somehow better or more entertaining than than other competitions is just daft.

I was a big fan of the European Cup format. A straightforward knockout competition involving national Champions that provided plenty of great games and frequent 'giant killings'.
The Champions League format is bollocks, A corrupt UEFA cash-cow aimed firmly at almost guaranteeing the same old names in the last 16. It's a tournament that can be won by a team who were the fourth best in their own league - Just bollocks

Being the Champions of your own nation is the pinnacle of the game in my opinion. Domestic trophies mean more to traditional football fans. The City Group obviously see the CL as the top objective - That's the difference between businessmen/women and football supporters.

I'm not going to change my mind just because we saw a couple of great games this week - I'll just continue to watch as long as City are involved.

I'll be delighted to see us win the CL, but I certainly won't lose any sleep if we don't win it. If we lose in the FA or League cup this season, I'll be a lot more disappointed. If we don't win the league this year, I'll be devastated

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Curious to know if you watched the game last night. Curious to know if you watched the PSG v Munich matches. If you didn’t you missed an absolute treat of football in both cases.
The excitement is beginning to build big time for our club now in this tournament. Surely you can feel it? Surely you could feel it last night too - even if you didn’t watch it?
Just wait until we get to a final - it may be this year. If we do the excitement is going to be at fever pitch or even completely off the scale! It really is THE pot to win or can you still not see it?
I’m just curious to know how you feel now and whether or not any of you CL haters have come round to it a bit more? Hope so as the club/team needs all the fans to get behind it now, doesn’t it?
ps. You can still boo the anthem! We don’t have to like the organisation behind the tournament but there’s no denying the latter stages are the dog’s danglies. COME ON CITY!

People don’t hate the CL because of the footy played on the strip of grass between two teams...

It’s because of the corrupt governing body and their FFP, for allowing debt to ruin the game but doing their utmost to get rid of the likes of City Malaga Leicester and Atalanta for daring the rock the Cartel’s boat, for colluding with the G14 to extend qualifying places to fit them all in (even if that put leagues from certain countries miles behind the top leagues, with no chance of ever catching up because of this decision), for seeding the group stages so the same teams always qualify for the KO stages, for brushing racism under the carpet, FFP, that 8-4 bent game those years back, for that corrupt refereeing performance in the Chelsea v Barcelona semifinal, for banning Kyiv fans from the Ro16 but then reinstating them as soon as they pulled City out of the hat, for not doing anything about Moscow letting fans in when they were supposed to be banned against us, for fining City more for coming out late than Porto for racist chanting, for fining City more for six bookings (of which about two should have been given) than Porto for racist chanting, for warning City about our conduct for chanting “you’re not incredible” at Hulk, for warning City about our conduct booing their CL jingle, for them calling their little jingle ditty an “anthem” like they’re dead important (deluded cunts, it’s not a fucking “anthem”!), for making clubs move home fans from their seats to accommodate corporate away fans, for their stupid massive advertising boards that means you have to kick fans out of their usual seats, for their stupid cameraman area (even though grounds have purpose built cameraman areas below pitch level) so that you have to kick people out of their usual seats, FFP, the fucking corrupt G14/Cartel, UEFA appointing the main Cartel CEOs as the main UEFA board members, them wanting to change the rules in case the Cartel finish outside their CL places in various countries so these cunts can still get into the CL, Der Spiegel and UEFA cutting and pasting bits of different emails together to make us look guilty for something we didn’t do and then having the cheek to take it all the way to court despite it all being fabricated, for banning Pellegrini for pointing out corrupt refereeing, for their continual corrupt refereeing, for the Jesus “offside” goal at Anfield, for the DSilva no penalty at Anfield, for the Sterling no penalty at Anfield, for the Sané “offside” goal at the Etihad, for the Milner handball not given at the Etihad, for not allowing City to retake the penalty at Spurs for encroachment, for not showing the ref different angles of the supposed Llorente handball, for banning Pep for simply pointing out corrupt refereeing... I could probably go on and on!

If it was one or two things you could understand but the whole thing from top to bottom is a corrupt load of shite, so I can understand why people hate it.

To me personally, this makes me want to win it more, but I don’t begrudge any City fan if they never watch a single second of this disgrace of a competition.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Isn’t it only one ref per country each year?

No some countries have several refs