Manchester City face with being charged by Uefa after their fans booed the Champions League anthem before their match against Seville on Wednesday. Uefa’s control, ethics and disciplinary body are to consider ‘the disruption of the competition anthem’ at their meeting on 19 November.
Uefa sources are discounting the prospect of a formal charge, but City intend to robustly defend their supporters’ right to peaceful protest and are instructing lawyers.
Manchester City face with being charged by Uefa after their fans booed the Champions League anthem before their match against Seville on Wednesday. Uefa’s control, ethics and disciplinary body are to consider ‘the disruption of the competition anthem’ at their meeting on 19 November.
Uefa sources are discounting the prospect of a formal charge, but City intend to robustly defend their supporters’ right to peaceful protest and are instructing lawyers.
One might think that Uefa had better things to do at a time when they are in disarray with president Michael Platini suspended frrom all football activities for 90 days and the acting president, Angel Maria Villar Llona, also facing a possible ban by Fifa’s ethics committee.
The whole idea of a competition anthem is pretty silly anyway and shows Uefa’s sense of its own importance which has led it and Fifa to lose touch with the game and the fans they are supposed to represent. The Premier League also has an anthem. Neither Uefa nor the Premier League are nation states.
City fans have in fact being booing the anthem for some time, but this is the first time it has been reported. Their spokesmen dismiss the whole farce as ludicrous. Kevin Parker, general secretary of the official City supporters’ club said: ‘This confirms what many City fans have thought for some time now – that Uefa is an organisation run by fools for fools.’
City fans see it as more evidence of a Uefa campaign against the club and consider that the proposed action may breach their right to free expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
City fans have a number of grievances against Uefa. In particular, they justifiably think that Uefa’s financial fair play rules were designed to protect existing elite clubs and prevent wealthy benefactors like Sheikh Mansour from busting their cartel.