My advice to City fans...

by Martin Samuel

Boo.

We know it gets to them. We know they hate it. We know they possess that incompatible, dangerous combination of having fragile egos yet enormous self-regard. So we should use that. Boo, gentlemen. Boo. Get out. You’re no good. We don’t want you. Boo.

Just when you thought those at the top in football could not be any further divorced from the reality of their circumstances, comes this. A threatened charge on free speech. An impending fine on freedom of expression. Nothing that happens at Manchester City when the Champions League anthem is played genuinely offends our sensibilities. Nobody invades the pitch, or vandalises the surroundings. There is no extreme nationalism, no racism, sexism or homophobia. No words, even. Just a noise.

A lowing, universal expression of contempt aimed at UEFA and their machinations. It is the gentlest form of protest really. If UEFA’s leaders got what they really deserved there would be demonstrations, boycotts, people on the streets, the odd burning torch. They would be ferried to the stadiums in armoured cars, not limousines. But supporters are a docile, accepting lot, really. They boo. And not a person either, a theme tune. They boo a brief blast of cod-classical that has come to represent UEFA’s elitism and its corporate priorities. And it isn’t even their song, by the way.

The Champions League anthem is an arrangement of Zadok the Priest by Handel. When the Queen dies and Charles III succeeds to the throne, some watching the scenes in Westminster Abbey will wonder what UEFA has got to do with it. Zadok the Priest has been sung at every coronation anointing a new sovereign since 1727.

UEFA engaged Tony Britten, an English composer, to provide words and a special arrangement. They couldn’t even come up with a new piece of music. Now, they treat the piece as if it is their own, and sacred. No mockery is allowed, no dissent, no disapproval. Announcing that proceedings had begun against City, UEFA even cited the rule that had been broken. “Article 16 (2G). Disruption of competition anthem”. So what are we supposed to do? Stand silently in awe and admiration? Cower at UEFA’s mightiness and wonder? Look upon their great works? The president is suspended from all football activity for 90 days. His stand-in looks like going the same way. The fuzz could turn up at any minute for the rest of them, Franz Beckenbauer included. Booing? They are lucky we don’t bring rotten fruit.

That UEFA should come up with even the hint of a charge while mired in scandal only confirms how out of touch its hierarchy is. The organisation has never been held in greater opprobrium than now. Michel Platini, the president, is under suspicion and temporarily suspended while a £1.35m payment from FIFA president Sepp Blatter is probed.

His acting replacement, Angel Maria Villar Llona, was barely through the door when it was revealed he, too, is facing sanction from FIFA’s ethics commission, while Germany’s bid for the 2006 World Cup – the last to be held in Europe – and its most famous footballing son, Beckenbauer, are also under investigation.

In the circumstances, one would imagine the organisation would wish to keep a low profile in the face of the critics, but no. They are coming out swinging, against the most benign of opponents: the fans. They want Manchester City to tell their supporters to shut it, to quell a protest against an organisation they – rightly – do not trust. Yet City’s worst fears about UEFA would appear to be confirmed by this latest action. Why them? Why always them? And why now?

The distrust of UEFA by Manchester City fans goes back to the early days of the Abu Dhabi takeover. From Platini’s first denouncements of foreign ownership and investment – when English football and Manchester City were singled out – it was clear there was little love on either side. Then came the £50m fine for breaching financial fair play rules that City supporters felt was driven by the established elite clubs such as Bayern Munich and Manchester United, and indiscriminate – Paris Saint-Germain received the same punishment, as if the two projects are interchangeable.

A debacle in Moscow last season was the final straw. City had previously experienced racism against their players in Europe, and felt unsupported by UEFA. CSKA Moscow’s ground was ordered to be closed after repeated racist incidents. Then City were told away fans were banned too. Many had already booked their travel and were out of pocket. To make matters worse, some of the few allowed in on the night – sponsors, members of that famous football family – sold their tickets at high prices to locals. So Moscow had some support in the closed arena, but not City. Again UEFA did nothing.

So City fans boo; and have booed for many years now. Yet it took until Wednesday’s game with Sevilla – when the reaction was barely noticeable, and certainly no louder than on previous occasions – for a UEFA match official to take offence. The referee, Bas Nijhuis of Holland, is unlikely to have been the instigator – and the referee assessor, Sandor Piller of Hungary, has other priorities.

Usually instances involving crowd behaviour are documented by the UEFA match delegate – on this occasion, Geir Thorsteinsson, president of the Football Association of Iceland. Yet City confirmed that no mention was made of booing in the debriefing that always follows Champions League matches, and Thorsteinsson was in attendance. So when precisely was he, or one of his colleagues, offended, and why were City not made aware at the time? A cynic could speculate Thorsteinsson was asked to listen out for dissent, knowing it would take place, and then react accordingly. It will only add to City’s suspicions about UEFA’s motives.

And where do we go from here? Are other forms of peaceful expression banned, too? Bayern Munich supporters arrived late at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday in protest at the £64 price of admission. By being deliberately absent when the Champions League anthem was played, did they also disrupt it according to Article 16? What of fans who sing club songs throughout? How exactly are we supposed to respond to UEFA’s pomposity these days? What level of subservience is required by this cabal of time-servers and maybe crooks?

Is this all fans are in the 21st century? Suckers to be milked and ordered to stay mute as the strains of a corporate branding exercise waft mellifluously around the stadium? How can an organisation whose two most influential figures stand with one foot in the gutter, allow those whose shoulders carry the crooked game to be treated in this way? Equally, how can they consider threats to be any solution? How do they think City’s fans will react? Wait for the next home game, against Borussia Monchengladbach, for the answer to that. See if the Germans join in. Sevilla did. And Bayern Munich last season.

And we should join them. All of us. UEFA have changed the dynamic. Before this week, the booing of the Champions League anthem at City – while both understandable and legitimate – was considered almost self-defeating. They didn’t get the tournament, they didn’t like the tournament, they didn’t do well in the tournament. Yes, the boos were a protest – but they were a negative for the club too. A refusal to engage, establishing a downbeat tone. No wonder City’s players could not get going in Europe, when their fans were so contemptuous of it.

Now, UEFA have given those boos fresh legitimacy. Look at this trumped-up complaint. Of course their anthem is booed. We should all boo. We are not booing the competition, or the ambition to be champions of Europe; we are booing them. The ones who pocket £1.35m, yet pontificate on FIFA corruption. The benders, the double dealers, those who think they answer to no-one. This noise is for them. And we know it makes them nervous now, so we should all join in.

Altogether now: booooo.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3284692/UEFA-divorced-reality-charging-Manchester-City-despite-no-sign-racism-sexism-homophobia.html

Boooooooooo

)

City fans should hiss at the during that dirge at the next game or hiss and boo.

How about, we all blow raspberries during that turgid piece of shite music?
Would they understand that?
Rather British too.

I think they show a blatant dis-regard to the British tradition which is Pantomime.
Maybe we should sue them for discrimination against our traditions..?

OH yes we should...!!!

Knowing the Brits as I do I would be amazed if Chelski & Goon fans don't roundly boo the anthem also
Rags won't understand what's going on as most of their crowd are from Thailand, Singapore, China, Scandanavia etc...

Barring any more interruptions in my life, I'll be there for the next home CL game. And I'll still be booing. I might even bring a sign saying "boo"

There is no way on this Earth that UEFA can fine the club for its fans booing what is in effect a theme tune to a football competition.

Turn yer back and 'Poznan' all the way through it.

So UEFA have decided to take no further action against us for this..
boooo  ))

BOOOOOOO

It was all bollocks anyway

utter bollocks

But it was a little insensitive of us, UEFA are having a tough time right now.

I wonder if Platini has been paying his taxes. That would be the one to top this off.

Surely, if he'd done the work and was owed the money, he should have declared it the year he earned it.

Maybe someone, like the french tax authorities, should be asking him some serious questions.

Topdawg wrote:utter bollocks

Get your own phrase!

utter blueboy bollocks

copyrighted!