Why UEFA Owe Manchester City an Apology

It has been a difficult time to be a Manchester City fan in recent times. Despite the success of the club on the pitch, rival clubs have made it look like the club is a bunch of thieves.

Campaigns against the club from football heavyweights like La Liga president, Javier Tebas and the Bayern Munich hierarchy, have consistently cast the club in an unfavorable light.

Man City have been made to look like cheats who have financially “doped” their way to success. And UEFA put the seal of approval on these prejudices with a guilty as charged verdict and slamming the side with a European ban.

Then came the ridicule, the embarrassment and all. All these despite the fact that the club’s management had maintained that these were all false allegations.

It’s certainly exciting to finally have the burden lifted as a result of the verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport. What has not changed is the way rival fans view the Cityzens.

And that’s not surprising. It’s a result of the lies they have been fed by a section of the media and the attitude their hierarchy and managers have developed against City. In fact, the level of animosity towards the club has instead increased.

This is all no thanks to key figures at UEFA that have yielded to the agenda of some traditional big clubs. The attitude of these sides suggests it’s all about maintaining the status quo so they can continue to dominate the football landscape. Rising clubs like Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City are rocking the boat and must be put down by all means. Rise to the occasion Financial Fair Play!

Now rival fans and even unsuspecting neutrals have been brainwashed to see clubs like Manchester City as the criminal trying to game the system. The damage now done to Manchester City’s reputation is far-reaching.

The least that the governing body can do in these circumstances is to render an unreserved apology for all it has put the club through. Manager Pep Guardiola feels the same. After voicing his excitement with the verdict, the City boss made it clear on Tuesday that the club deserves an apology.

”I’m incredibly happy for the decision,” he stated. “It shows everything that people said about the club was not true.

“We will defend on the pitch what we won on the pitch.”

“We should be apologised to because if we did something wrong we will accept the decision from UEFA because we did something wrong.

That may be a little gesture to some, but having the body accept it was wrong and tender an apology will help show just how some people like La Liga president, Javier Tebas are on a personal witch hunt against the club.

I mean after an unrelenting attack on the club during the whole process, his comments after the CAS decision is rather unfortunate.

“We have to reassess whether the CAS is the appropriate body to which to appeal institutional decisions in football,” said Tebas.

“Switzerland is a country with a great history of arbitration, the CAS is not up to standard.”

Suddenly discrediting a court as reputable as CAS for ruling in Manchester City’s favour shows just how much the man dislikes Man City. We should know. Success breeds enemies. But you just don’t want the man that makes the rules to be biased and take sides.

UEFA has to do better.