Manchester City To Be Punished by UEFA For Behaviour of Fans?
By David Crook
Manchester City have been charged by UEFA in response to the behaviour of the City fans.
There are times when it must appear, to even the most placid Manchester City fan, that UEFA are on a concerted mission to ensure fans boo the ridiculous Champions League anthem. It is almost as though UEFA are goading City fans sometimes and today has been no exception.
During the game between Manchester City and Dinamo Zagreb it was apparent that there was some instances of trouble between the two sets of fans. Videos began to appear on social media sites as the game was still going on. It should be said in context that there were relatively few Dinamo fans at the Etihad Stadium.
Before the kick off the Dinamo fans were in pretty good spirits and the atmosphere was entirely friendly in and around City Square. Once the match had kicked off the Dinamo fans embarked upon a loud and repetitive chant but otherwise were causing no particular issues.
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The atmosphere did begin to change in the second half after Raheem Sterling had scored for City. The Dinamo fans were seen to take off their shirts and face the cool Manchester weather bare chested.
Around this time according to the videos on social media, the Dinamo fans began to throw items into the neighbouring Manchester City fans. These items seemed to include bottles and cups of urine.
Altercations then seemed to break out between the Dinamo fans and the football stewards in the stands and the atmosphere began to turn for the worse. Dinamo fans began to break up the seating and throw these broken pieces into the City fans too.
There would appear to have been some retaliation by some City fans at this point too.
Other social media videos show instances of Dinamo fans doing Nazi salutes to the City fans.
Manchester City have today confirmed damage was caused to the away seating area at the Etihad Stadium by the Dinamo fans and this amounted to some 150 seats needing to be replaced. Given the visit of Wolves to the Stadium at the weekend, this repair work has had to start immediately but understandably City are reportedly seeking to recover the cost of the damages from Dinamo.
In the aftermath of the game UEFA have charged Dinamo Zagreb in relation to the damage caused to the Etihad Stadium and also due to their fans throwing missiles. Manchester City have also been charged in relation to the behaviour of their fans with regards to throwing missiles.
These disciplinary charges will be heard by the UEFA board on 17 October. Whilst it is most likely City will face a fine, Dinamo are in a more serious position. They are currently already serving a Stadium ban which has been suspended in relation to other incidents of bad behaviour by fans.
The charges brought by UEFA against City have hardly endeared City fans to the Champions League. Our fans believe being charged for retaliation is not fair given the aggression they faced.
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Regardless of that, the clean up at the Etihad is currently going on in the background in preparation for the next big match.