When UEFA slaps a stadium ban on a European club—as it has CSKA Moscow in the Champions League for its fans’ racist chanting—, the ban does not apply to the tickets allocated tosponsors and other partners. As the BBC points out, out of the 650 fans who attended Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw between CSKA and Manchester City in Moscow, roughly half were reserved forsponsors. And, according to the report, the people using those tickets loudly and overwhelmingly supported the home team, while City received zero tickets as a result the stadium ban.
Somethingneeds to change, an apoplectic Vincent Kompany said after the game. “Why the hell do we not have any fans here? What have our fans done wrong? There’s no fairness in it,” the City captainexclaimed. “You say no fans, all of a sudden you turn up and the team who has no fans is Man City. So who’s getting punished? Who’s being done for racism, Man City or Moscow? It needs to be looked at,it needs to be changed. Our fans shouldn’t be punished.”
City coach Manuel Pellegrini, sensitive to saying anything that could get him suspended, was more measured in his response. “Idon’t know who has permission to give entrance to all those people, but really it is not my duty,” he said. I don’t want to talk about the referee or other things. I don’t want to be punishedagain.”
UEFA, meanwhile, said it would wait for the official game report from the referees before making any comment.
The result, which saw City surrender a two-goal lead, leftthe English champ in third-place in Group E with two points from three games, two points behind AS Roma in second and five behind Bayern Munich in first.