new piece by Martin Samuel today
Sorry Pep Guardiola, Manchester City fans are right to boo UEFA hypocrites - Manchester City fans have been booing the Champions League anthem
Pep Guardiola told supporters to forget the past issues in the competition
City have worked their way up only to see UEFA benefit the establishment
Fans have the right to protest - and to boo UEFA, because they deserve it
By MARTIN SAMUEL - SPORT FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 22:31, 18 September 2016 | UPDATED: 01:29, 19 September 2016
Pep Guardiola is doing a wonderful job at Manchester City. Eight matches, eight wins, breaking a record that stretched back to the days when opponents included Gainsborough Trinity, Woolwich Arsenal and Darwen.
He has coached Kevin De Bruyne to the form of his life, Raheem Sterling is going that way, too — and already his ideas feel like revolution, evolution and everything in between.
On the subject of UEFA, however, he would do well to mind his own. This is the City fans' specialist subject and he cannot begin to understand how his supporters feel about Europe's governing body.
Pep Guardiola has told Manchester City fans to forget the past when it comes to UEFA
Of course Guardiola is mystified that the Champions League anthem is booed at the Etihad Stadium. He has lived happily on the right side of the tracks throughout his magnificent career.
As manager of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, his has been a life of UEFA-crafted privilege. They have never been anything other than lovely to him.
Not just on a personal level, either. Guardiola might not actually realise his life has changed now he is with Manchester City, because he remains feted wherever he goes. For UEFA, he will always be the man that thrust Lionel Messi into their world, and gave the Champions League some of its greatest nights and feats.
They adore him, and understandably so. And he loves them back. Why wouldn't he?
They extinguish competition, their wealth helps create one-team leagues, they levy £50million fines on rival upstarts — and if all that doesn't work, they rewrite the co-efficient calculations and adjust the financial share of the market pool to ensure the giants of European football seize a greater share of the revenue generated by English clubs.
Guardiola has only worked at clubs that are in league with UEFA, that work hand in glove to preserve their status in the closed shop of the European elite.
So before telling City's fans to forget the past, he might want to get a glimpse of his future. It is all there, in UEFA's new co-efficient table.
Bayern Munich were ranked second in Europe with 163.035 points, and stay there — but now with 189. Barcelona were ranked third with 159.143 points, and stay there — but with 188. Manchester City had 99.257 points — and now have 84. They fall five places to 16th. And this means more chance of a tougher draw — and less money.
Fans have booed the Champions League anthem after a series of issues in the competition
City have worked their way in from Europe's wilderness: 64th in 2010, 42nd in 2011, 22nd in 2013, 17th in 2015, only to be bumped down the co-efficient table in what they believed to be a breakthrough European season.
That is how UEFA works for the clubs outside the gilded elite. That is why Manchester City's fans protest, and why Guardiola cannot understand.
'They must forget what happened in the past,' Guardiola advised, but the same could be said of him. Forget his past and familiarise himself with some recent history. Talk to more supporters, or to people around the club who have lived through the many hypocrisies, inconsistencies and injustices and would cheerfully boo from the posh seats, if only protocol and their employment contracts would allow.
Talk to them about getting fined £25,000 for coming out less than a minute late, in the same year that Porto were fined £17,000 for fans racially abusing Manchester City players. Talk about who got the money from their £49m financial fair play fine (here's a clue, Pep — you used to manage two of them).
Talk about how CSKA Moscow got hundreds of fans into a match due to be played behind closed doors when City's fans — who had done nothing wrong — were excluded. UEFA would even have charged City for booing the Champions League anthem, had news of their intention not made them appear even more petty and ridiculous.
Guardiola has only worked at clubs that are in league with UEFA, such as Barcelona
Guardiola has no frame of reference for any of this resentment. Neither do the clubs he has managed. The year before he arrived, Bayern Munich played a Champions League final at home. Barcelona are considered to have their feet so firmly under the top table that opposition fans in Spain sneeringly refer to them as Uefalona.
Claims of official bias or referees under instruction to ensure their progress are nonsense, of course — but hardly surprising when so much of UEFA's work benefits only the establishment.
And yes, it is unhelpful that Manchester City's fans do not embrace Europe, and that the ground often does not sell out on Champions League nights. Seeing the joy the travelling Leicester fans got from last week's visit to Bruges shows how positive the tournament can be for new arrivals.
Some City fans feel the same way, too — but that does not alter the rights of others to protest, as long as they then move on.
So cheer the team, get behind the players, wring every last drop of enjoyment from a Guardiola side who have, so far, exceeded even the most ambitious expectations. But boo UEFA; because they deserve it.
You never know, the more Guardiola discovers what it is like to be outside their inner circle, he may even feel inclined to join in one day.
Guardiola has got his Manchester City side playing brilliantly so far in the Premier League
Guardiola has got his Manchester City side playing brilliantly so far in the Premier League