On The Ball
City's love-hate relationship with Champions League persists
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Manchester City's Joao Cancelo reacts during their Champions League semi-final second leg match against Real Madrid.
PHOTO: AFP
There is a sub-section of Manchester City's support who freely declare they have no desire for their team to even play in the Champions League, let alone win it. The logic follows that it's a competition for the gilded elite, those who designed the financial fair play system to protect a closed shop against interlopers like City, a formerly provincial club now flush with the riches of Abu Dhabi.
In 2020, European football's governing body Uefa sanctioned the club over breaking those regulations, banning them from its competitions, only for that be overturned when City's expensive lawyers took that judgment to arbitration. City fans celebrated that legal victory as a kick against the system. Rebel hearts flushed with vindication.