The Super League | FA + PL: New Charter & Fines | UEFA: Settlement

[Robinho's Subbuteo]

47 people who don't give a fuck about football. Don't care about its history, it's traditions and how it's those things that made football the greatest sport in the world.

It's the history and traditions that enabled fans to dream that their club, no matter where it came from, no matter their current situation, could one day reach the top.

To those 47 (so far).... you're absolute wankers.

How well do you actually know the '47'?

 

[Citizen Green]

The game has been going this way for years. This is its logical conclusion.

Of course I hate it to the core. No relegation and right by entitlement is against sport but I don't think City had much choice in this.

Pretty much my view.

Although the choice of course they could of taken was to be on the outside looking in, not sure what that would of done for the club long term.

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

David Bernstein saying it as it is for me on the BBC web page. Im ashamed. Im also gutted as i know i wont enjoy or want to be part of this, so something that has been a really big part of my life, City, something that i have enjoyed so much is seemingly coming to an end.

 

[NotinUK]

Hello everyone. I have been a lurker in this forum since a year and as you can see from my username, I am not from UK or have ever been outside my own country because I am not rich or can afford it today. I feel like I am walking in a ring of fire, but I want to hear what the original fans of the club think about the entire fiasco and what will be the ideal case scenario for you from now on. Before I begin I hate the Super League and I don't think I will be able to root for one club from now on with the only exception of Manchester City if they pull out soon.

I would be lying if I say i started watching football when we were relegated, hell i started watching after the Aguero goal. So 2012/13 was the season I supporting City (also it was the first season I started watching football, so the only club I have so far supported is Manchester City except for my local one, which is a new-ish club in India) and the reason for it was because I felt I related to the mentality of the club (being relegated after winning the league, the Dickov goal and the QPR goal, Trauttman and his heroics and the fact that we were the noisy neighbours). I am not pretending to be a better fan than any of you guys, you are the reason for the club to be where it is now and this is a huge back-stab that the Sheikh and Khaldoon have hit the Manchester City fans with, local more than foreign. I want to know is there any way this situation is salvageable for you? For me as a foreign fan, i would be happy with heavy punishments such as transfer window ban, point deduction, heavy fines, some more fines to benefit the city of Manchester, a public apology to the fans with firings of influential figures and of course backing out from the Super league. But what i want is irrelevant because most of the hurt has been done to you, so what would you want next now that they have made a mess that shouldn't have.

Also please don't hate Indian fans, most of the Manchester City supporters I know are good people who hate the new league and we play a much smaller role in influencing the shambles that the Glazers, FSG, Perez and Agnelli has created. I hope I am not unwelcome here.

Edit: Also I dont think City had much choice here, i would like to believe they were forced in it.

 

[shemnel]

I respect this opinion but I want you to sit in the cold light of day and think - what were the options put in front of us that we should have taken?

If we pick to not go, we're essentially relegating ourselves to the standard of team currently in the Europa League at best. We'll get some decent players in and we could have a go maybe at the league on a fluke season but we don't play in the biggest competition so we'll always be behind the top clubs. No Pep, no De Bruyne, no Haaland or Messi or Kane.

The decision was this - do you want a morality that harks for a competitive standard that hasn't existed for 30 years or do you want trophies, top players and big games?

Because there's the biggest rub in all of this - this isn't the death of competition. Competition hasn't existed in the Premier League for decades. Why purposely limit the potential of the club to chase not just an idea of morality but a totally false one that doesn't even exist?

I feel like a lot of you are facing the battles that I have already mentally faced in 2008 when Sheikh Mansour took over. We were to become a global club, one of the biggest in the world, and we would eventually be the people who were doing the smooth talking in the hallways of UEFA. I settled with the idea that a globalised Man City was what we were and celebrated the idea that our club could become something akin to a New York Yankees or Barcelona or Chicago Bulls. An instantly recognisable symbol of excellence in their sport.

Agnelli, Perez, Glazer, etc, they're business men. They want us in it because the league will generate significantly more money with us in it. Football has always been a competition in the boardroom as much as it is on the pitch. I'm not really pissed at this. They tried to stop us and they couldn't so they invite us to the group to get some reflected glory. Was always going to happen; what's that quote about how they laugh at you first? Our boys in the boardroom are savvy operators and they'll know that these guys wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire but they need them.

My point being that you should try to think about this and let the details come out. City aren't dead nor have they changed, they're just potentially playing in a different European competition. The people there are all the same as they were yesterday. Phil Foden still has a shit fringe. Almost all the complaints I've seen about this are about what "might" happen. Cheerleaders (?!), no away fans, a bunch of literal shit like that. People are overreacting. Let's see what it looks like before we start throwing away 40 years of support - it's not even been a day yet.

you've rationalised the decision to continue following City in whatever format and competition they play in, which is your choice, but every fan has a breaking point i think, you'll have one too.

reflecting back, many of us put up with years of weird and exploitative shit through UEFA and the PL board, and I would guess many of the fans who voted 'No' on this poll will continue to watch the games, but it should be noted that everybody has a different version of the game they are prepared to put up with. your points are all valid and well made.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

One of you rich cunts needs to start FC City of Manchester.

I'd like to offer my services as a 30 year old, slender, chain smoking, Rodri stand in.

I'm a playing dead-ringer for David Silva if someone could tell me which fuckin' boot goes on which fuckin' foot.

 

[nmc]

You don't think refs would work for more money?

I'm sure they'll get a few of the Rags and Dippers coaching staff to volunteer

 

[Charlesfarsbar]

They finally did it, they have stolen our game from us

How fucking dare they

Surely we can fight back somehow to stop it happening ?

 

[Marvin]

It undoubtedly is, given that the stories are they hadn't got their way over a key proposal around commercial revenue in the about-to-be-agreed new CL format. So a small voice in me says wait and see, as breakaway threats have been used many times before. And also that we might be in this mainly in order to piss on their chips, as someone obviously leaked this & we've seemingly used Ziegler before.

But these threats have never gone as far as this, at least as far as UEFA are concerned. We've seen the introduction of the Premier League of course, which the FA implicitly backed then found that the clubs it thought it had got onside were in fact not interested in them as an ally.

We could have gone to a point where we put out a statement saying that we were invited to join but had no intention of doing business with these clubs, who'd tried everything to stop us getting richer while trying to line their own pockets. That would have been powerful in my view.

Bit we went ahead and put our name to this, which I'm deeply ashamed of, but not wholly surprised sadly. The line's been drawn now as far as I, and I'm sure others, are concerned.

City till I die? We fucking died when that statement went on the OS.

That we did not put our name to that statement tells you who is driving this. Sadly City don't have the power to stop this.

 

[Gazza]

The game has been going this way for years. This is its logical conclusion.

Of course I hate it to the core. No relegation and right by entitlement is against sport but I don't think City had much choice in this.

All the teams could say this - basically "They made me do it"