At least Moscow Euro farce won’t be repeated at Etihad
FOR the three City players who featured in the club’s last game behind closed doors, tomorrow’s fixture with Arsenal should be a considerably better experience.
Sergio Aguero, David Silva, and Fernandinho are the only survivors from the 18-man squad that Manuel Pellegrini took to play CSKA Moscow in a 2014 Champions League game that must be remembered in the timeline of how the relationship between Blues and UEFA went south.
CSKA fans had already been forced to play a game with a stand shut as a result of racist abuse directed at Yaya Toure the year before, but they were penalised again with a full closure against Bayern Munich after their fans were spotted carrying neo-fascist banners in the away game at Viktoria Plzen. More racist chanting, this time in Rome, brought a stadium closure for the City match.
The fact this was only floated less than a month before the fixture, and confirmed just days before, hurt innocent Blues fans that had already paid out on flights, hotels and visas. Those that still headed out to Moscow faced further frustration.
Some enterprising City fans took advantage of what a few Bayern Munich supporters had done in the same situation and hired out a flat in a tower block overlooking the stadium for £5,000, only for the Russian police to step in and prevent it.
Others even made it into the stadium on sponsors’ tickets that were part of the 650-strong entourage that were allowed in. However, they were thrown out by City security staff, who were keen to abide by the rules that had been laid out by UEFA even if the club felt like they were being punished for something they hadn’t done.
As kick-off approached, it became clear that - as had been suggested during the Bayern Munich game behind closed doors - the tickets meant for sponsors and partners had gone to CSKA fans, with red-and-blue colours flooding the media areas before the game and filling out into the empty stands for the match.
One City fan who was twice ejected before the game told M.E.N. Sport: “I couldn’t believe it. Here we were acting like super spies to get in and there are all these people with CSKA scarves, blatantly fans that are just being allowed to get away with it.
“How were we punished for their fans and they still got to watch the game?”
Things got even worse during the match. There were constant chants for the home side, roars when they went forward, whistles and boos for City attacks and silence for Blues goals.
And what had looked like being a professional job turned cold as they froze in the Moscow chill to blow a 2-0 lead at half-time and leave with just the one point.
City skipper Vincent Kompany could not hide his fury in front of the TV cameras.
“There aren’t meant to be any fans there, but there are still 500 fans there for [CSKA]. That isn’t a problem, but I don’t understand where our fans are.
Why can’t we bring our fans in?” he fumed. “The only team being punished here is Manchester City. They are the team that got done for racism, not Man City, so why can’t our fans come?”
To crown a wholly dreadful affair, a week later CSKA saw their ban reduced. There were boos and whistles heard at the Etihad during the Champions League anthem before the next game as Blues made their feelings known. Almost six years on, there is no more love for UEFA from City fans, but the club can at least expect no more nasty surprises when the Premier League returns behind closed doors tomorrow.