Manchester City are currently in the second spot of the Premier League table – 2 points behind leaders Liverpool.
While Pep Guardiola’s side might have made a good start to their domestic season but their European campaign has not rolled along so nicely.
City lost their opening game of the new Champions League campaign 2-1 to Lyon at Etihad last week while Pep Guardiola watched from the VIP box – serving a touchline ban.
Guardiola was not even allowed to enter the dressing room at half-time forcing Mikel Arteta to take charge of the players. But the fact that City played the match infront of a virtually empty stadium was an even bigger blow for the management.
A total of 40,111 fans showed up for the game and given that the stadium holds 55,000 people – a shocking 15,000 or so fans chose to shy away from a European night at the Etihad.
🏟 The Etihad stadium last night.
😳 15,000 empty seats…
⚽️ On Matchday 1 of the @ChampionsLeague. pic.twitter.com/YbBhK9hI1w
— SPORF (@Sporf) September 20, 2018
And this incident clubbed with an empty Etihad stadium have made Manchester City a laughing stock in European football during the past couple of days with rivals fans taking a dig at their counterparts for not standing behind their team during a competition like the Champions League.
Now in a bid to save their blushes, Man City’s official fan group have come up with a statement to save the image of the fans as well as the club.
But all this statement from Man City’s official fan group has done is aggravate the matter even more.
Kevin Parker, the general secretary of the Man City’s official fan group said in a statement:
“We were in Pot one this year and because of that we ended up with Lyons, Shakhtar and Hoffenheim,
“No disrespect to them but none of them really are a game that you think “wow, that is going to be a cracker’.”
This absurd justification from Man City’s official fan group has brought criticism for the group with many claiming that not only has Kevin Parker failed to handle the situation but has also indirectly made it clear that the City fans will not be coming to the stadium during the future Champions League games too.
Read: English International reveals he fell out of love with football while playing for ‘this’ club.
Read: Former Premier League star makes a shocking statement while talking about the Ronaldo red card.
