Why English football needs Manchester City to reach Champions League last 16
Failure at Europe's highest level may dent the Premier League’s brand and lessen its appeal to the game’s top players
Why English football needs Man City to reach Champions League last 16 after Liverpool exit
Let's hear your support: Neutrals should get behind City in Rome to protect Premier League's worldwide brand and appeal Photo: PA
By Mark Ogden
As champions of England, and with their Champions League hopes on the line in Rome tonight, Manchester City deserve the backing of the nation when they face AS Roma in the Stadio Olimpico aiming to secure the result to take the club into the knock-out stages.
Forget the partisan allegiances of rival supporters or the mentality that City will only have themselves to blame if they fail to qualify as runners-up behind Bayern Munich.
For one night only, City should be the country’s team because losing two Premier League clubs from the Champions League in the space of 24 hours would suit nobody connected to English football.
Liverpool’s group stage elimination, confirmed by FC Basel’s 1-1 draw at Anfield, has already accounted for England’s five-time European champions, who must now brush themselves down and prepare for the twilight zone of Thursday’s nights in the Europa League in the new year.
City following Liverpool out of the Champions League would simply be bad for business for the Premier League and a sign that English football is losing touch with La Liga and the Bundesliga when it comes to competing for the major European honours.
More worryingly, certainly in the medium to long-term, is the prospect of the Premier League being overtaken by Serie A in Uefa’s country co-efficient table – a development which would see English football lose its fourth Champions League participant and drop to three competing clubs.
That will not happen this season or next, but losing two of the four Champions League participants before Christmas will not help the Premier League maintain its lead over Serie A and there is a genuine threat of the Bundesliga eclipsing the Premier League this season in order to climb to second, behind La Liga, in Uefa’s co-efficient table.
But with City unveiling their new £200m training facility this week, there is also the sense that Champions League success – reaching the quarter-finals this season would be regarded a success by the club’s owners – would give the club a timely boost.
City’s under-achievement in the Champions League has been one of the mysteries of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan’s six-year reign as owner and one which cannot simply be explained away on the basis of the competition providing a steep learning curve for clubs such as City.
Paris Saint-Germain, whose return to prominence has been funded by Qatari owners, have enjoyed swift progress in the Champions League in comparison to City, despite starting much later than their Mancunian counterparts.
A second successive appearance in the knock-out stages would dispel suggestions that City have become the sick man of Europe and lay the foundations for greater success.
It would also enable City to appeal to the world’s top stars as a club that can win the biggest prize of them all and, while that may not be encouraged by rival supporters, it would enhance the Premier League to have the world’s best players performing in England.
Failure in the Champions League may dent the Premier League’s brand and lessen its appeal to the game’s top players.
If players can earn incredible money at Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG or City, the Premier League champions may find themselves fourth on the list if they continue to under-perform in the Champions League.
That would hurt City, but it would also hurt Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool because the league itself would be regarded as a less attractive destination if only Spanish or German clubs showed real signs of winning in Europe.
So when they take on Roma tonight, there will be more at stake than merely Manchester City’s European reputation
