Fans attitude towards Champions League football

[sheblue]

I dreamt of us playing in the Champions League because I used to love the drama of watching it as a neutral.

Now that I kick every ball, I just find it frustrates the shit out of me. I hate that the refs blow for every bit of contact, meaning the teams with the smallest/cheating/diving players tend to reach the latter stages. The ones who know how to "play the game".
"You have to adapt to the Champions League" is a common lump of shit line thrown at us from robot pundits. Adapt? Learn to work the ref more like.

We have a team built to play fair and that will work in every competition except the Champions League.
I want to win it, just to say we won everything.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still watch it. And I'll watch the latter stages after we're knocked out. Because I'll be neutral again and I can relax and watch the soap opera... enjoying it with a couple of beers and without it affecting me any more than the likes of True Detective or Breaking Bad did.

Yes. to a certain extent anyway. But its a minor part of the equation.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

I'd love us to win it, despite everything that's wrong with it (and has been mentioned in this thread).

[carl_feedthegoat]

I like the idea of all the fans turning their backs when the the CL theme belts out..I think we should make our feelings known...it will piss off flatter and co no end...

[Wonderwall]

Bring Back the:
European Cup
UeFA Cup
Cup Winners Cup

and make every round a knockout round, stop all this fancy dan bollox, make each one a REAL COMPETITION

[Original Dub]

Amen brother Bob!!

[Goaters 103]

Bring Back the:
European Cup
UeFA Cup
Cup Winners Cup

and make every round a knockout round, stop all this fancy dan bollox, make each one a REAL COMPETITION

Id agree wholeheartedly but sadly the Uefa cartel and G14 would choke at the thought.

Only 1 team from each country in the Champions Lge? That wont create nearly enough money in the trough to get their snouts stuck in to.

[South Stand Balti]

Bring Back the:
European Cup
UeFA Cup
Cup Winners Cup

and make every round a knockout round, stop all this fancy dan bollox, make each one a REAL COMPETITION

I totally agree and I think this highlights the biggest problems with the Champs league. The group stages are a joke with teams scoring 6 or 7 goals all over the place. This makes them boring and shows it should just be the champions involved. I'm always grumbling about the Chsmps league but I must confess i was feeling happy about it when we were 2 up at half time. I'm in the cup scheme and will remain in it.

[zuricity]

Bring Back the:
European Cup
UeFA Cup
Cup Winners Cup

and make every round a knockout round, stop all this fancy dan bollox, make each one a REAL COMPETITION

I totally agree and I think this highlights the biggest problems with the Champs league. The group stages are a joke with teams scoring 6 or 7 goals all over the place. This makes them boring and shows it should just be the champions involved. I'm always grumbling about the Chsmps league but I must confess i was feeling happy about it when we were 2 up at half time. I'm in the cup scheme and will remain in it.

i agree too.

What annoys me is that they call it the 'Champions league' ! Which is clearly a lie and incorrect. Most of the teams in it are not Champions.

Mutton dressed up as Lamb.

[Bianchi on Ice]

Bring Back the:
European Cup
UeFA Cup
Cup Winners Cup

and make every round a knockout round, stop all this fancy dan bollox, make each one a REAL COMPETITION

Id agree wholeheartedly but sadly the Uefa cartel and G14 would choke at the thought.

Only 1 team from each country in the Champions Lge? That wont create nearly enough money in the trough to get their snouts stuck in to.

We all know this is 100% true. Anything else is just a pipedream. The only thing to debate is how the cunts will cook it if their precious established clubs start missing out on the competition they thought they had a lifetime pass into

[Mikhail Chigorin]

I remember a few years ago watching the likes of Liverpool and rags in the competition and the atmosphere in big games was electric, it was like a cauldron, like watching the hamburg game and a bit more. I wanted to see us on those big European nights and to see our stadium rocking. It just seems the fans have a really indifferent attitude to this competition. We've played barca, Madrid, bayern and dortmund in last few years and not once have we had a great atmosphere. Not even half of the hamburg atmosphere.

In the 1990s and the early part of this new century, I went a fair few times to the Swamp to watch some of the mid-week European games with a friend of mine who, although he is a Geordie, is a Scum fan (Just for the record, he used to get two tickets for himself and his son and if his son couldn't make it, he used to ask me. He had a beautiful Alfa 164 which I used to love and it was worth going, just for the pleasure of riding in that car).

From what I can recall, although the Swamp was pretty much full to capacity on such evenings, the 'atmosphere' was never much to write home about and the crowd were often quite subdued. To be fair, these were usually the earlier games in that competition, so the crowd reaction might have been different in the later stages.

All in all, it was nothing to shout home about and when, in 2002, he sold his 164, I didn't go after that.

Did you wash after?

At that point in time, City were in the doldrums and it was a chance to see some European teams and the way they played, in the flesh, as it were.

He was a very good friend of mine and we saw quite a few City away games together as well, but I always quietly enjoyed it when the Scum didn't perform, as expected and their fans were somehow outraged that things didn't go their way. They were always very comical when they were angry.

My brother-in-law (a Leeds fan) was very scathing about me going to the Swamp but, hypocritically speaking, he was quite happy when, occasionally, I went with him to Elland Road. However, whenever I did go to the Devil's Den, I was sure to take along an imaginary crucifix and garlic bulb......

.......just hope that, in spite of my admission, I'm not now branded as some sort of honorary Rag.........

[london blue 2]

maybe we could persuade our fans by creating an atmosphere of Anfield proportions, did you see the scouse1 ground bouncing last night....no? Thought Not Guffawwww.

anfield atmosphere shits all over the etihad unfortunately.

[Blue Since 76]

Newcastle next week and CSKA the week afterwards. I know which one I'm looking forward to the most - the one against the team from the frozen land with the ugly fans you can't understand. The CSKA game on the other hand is boring me already.

As others have said, the Barca game last season was the final straw for me. I was really looking forward to seeing how good they were, yet all I saw was a team who were great at falling over and the referee was all over it. If that is football, give me a game vs Stoke any day

[Wonderwall]

maybe we could persuade our fans by creating an atmosphere of Anfield proportions, did you see the scouse1 ground bouncing last night....no? Thought Not Guffawwww.

anfield atmosphere shits all over the etihad unfortunately.

Have you ever been to anfield? I have been several times and NEVER witnessed a good atmosphere. I have seen a couple on television....but in my own experience we have been singing its just like being in church. Fucking shocking. In fact i challenge you to find any scouse game with an atmosphere this season.

[Original Dub]

maybe we could persuade our fans by creating an atmosphere of Anfield proportions, did you see the scouse1 ground bouncing last night....no? Thought Not Guffawwww.

anfield atmosphere shits all over the etihad unfortunately.

Last night it was very similar to the atmosphere at cska.

No, they have an extremely catchy tune with a nice slow build up and can be sang in a long loop. They sing it before the match, aided by intercom... then they either sing it if they score, or at the end when they've been beaten.

It's very catchy.

There was no atmosphere last night, except for that gerry and the pacemakers song.

[Mikhail Chigorin]

Newcastle next week and CSKA the week afterwards. I know which one I'm looking forward to the most - the one against the team from the frozen land with the ugly fans you can't understand. The CSKA game on the other hand is boring me already.

As others have said, the Barca game last season was the final straw for me. I was really looking forward to seeing how good they were, yet all I saw was a team who were great at falling over and the referee was all over it. If that is football, give me a game vs Stoke any day

Nice one.

Mind you, when I lived up there I went to see the 'Toon' on several occasions. Their fans are a right 'daft' lot but not unlikeable in a strange way.

The Gateshead lot were totally unintelligible to me.

[MilnersJaw]

whoever that muppet is telling me and a chunk of us on here that we are small time because we don't drink the campaign flowing from that UEFA gravy train can do one.

I think toyko blue summed it up best regarding why people here don't like the competition. Not least we forget it is the same people ramming this ridiculous FFP rules down our throats to.

[South Stand Balti]

I'm looking forward to the Newcastle game even more now. Reading the comments on here it seems like we might get a full house.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

maybe we could persuade our fans by creating an atmosphere of Anfield proportions, did you see the scouse1 ground bouncing last night....no? Thought Not Guffawwww.

anfield atmosphere shits all over the etihad unfortunately.

Last night it was very similar to the atmosphere at cska.

No, they have an extremely catchy tune with a nice slow build up and can be sang in a long loop. They sing it before the match, aided by intercom... then they either sing it if they score, or at the end when they've been beaten.

It's very catchy.

There was no atmosphere last night, except for that gerry and the pacemakers song.

Would agree with that.
Last season they did have a good atmosphere though mainly because they started games fast, they regularly came out like a steam train and got a couple of goals early and got the crowd in the mood.

Still, probably an upgrade on the atmosphere at ours the majority of the time.

[Blue Since 76]

maybe we could persuade our fans by creating an atmosphere of Anfield proportions, did you see the scouse1 ground bouncing last night....no? Thought Not Guffawwww.

anfield atmosphere shits all over the etihad unfortunately.

Last night it was very similar to the atmosphere at cska.

No, they have an extremely catchy tune with a nice slow build up and can be sang in a long loop. They sing it before the match, aided by intercom... then they either sing it if they score, or at the end when they've been beaten.

It's very catchy.

There was no atmosphere last night, except for that gerry and the pacemakers song.

Would agree with that.
Last season they did have a good atmosphere though mainly because they started games fast, they regularly came out like a steam train and got a couple of goals early and got the crowd in the mood.

Still, probably an upgrade on the atmosphere at ours the majority of the time.

They won the title in February, so you can understand the great atmosphere as they celebrated for four months

[Original Dub]

maybe we could persuade our fans by creating an atmosphere of Anfield proportions, did you see the scouse1 ground bouncing last night....no? Thought Not Guffawwww.

anfield atmosphere shits all over the etihad unfortunately.

Last night it was very similar to the atmosphere at cska.

No, they have an extremely catchy tune with a nice slow build up and can be sang in a long loop. They sing it before the match, aided by intercom... then they either sing it if they score, or at the end when they've been beaten.

It's very catchy.

There was no atmosphere last night, except for that gerry and the pacemakers song.

Would agree with that.
Last season they did have a good atmosphere though mainly because they started games fast, they regularly came out like a steam train and got a couple of goals early and got the crowd in the mood.

Still, probably an upgrade on the atmosphere at ours the majority of the time.

Mate, I'll never argue in favour of our "atmosphere".

It's fucking shocking. Money should be heavily invested in reorganising the support sections.

As for dippers having a great atmosphere last season... ours was fantastic when pearce took over and we raced up the league to almost qualify for europe only for that missed peno.

What I'm getting at is that it's easy to cheer when you're excited. And by God were they excited last season.