Kompany: Fan absence unacceptable

22 October 2014 06:46

Captain Vincent Kompany claims it is "unacceptable" Manchester City had no fans at their Champions League tie at CSKA Moscow while the home side apparently did.

CSKA appeared to have around 200-300 fans backing them at a game that was officially played behind closed doors at the Khimki Arena.

European governing body UEFA ordered the stadium to be closed as punishment for persistent offences by CSKA fans, who have been found guilty of racist behaviour three times in the past year.

Despite that, 650 people were still permitted to attend and the CSKA supporters who vocally backed their team were thought to have come from within an allocation of 300 tickets set aside for sponsors.

Kompany said: "You say 'no fans' then all of a sudden you turn up and basically the only team that hasn't got fans is Man City. So who's getting punished? Who is being done for racism? Man City or Moscow?

"I don't have a problem, they'll say it's sponsors and so on and they need to give certain allocations, but why are we getting punished?

"You'll have people in your papers writing columns saying, 'he should be looking at his own performance and stuff' - so we've analysed it and we know we should have done better but things like this are unacceptable to be honest, there's just no fairness in it."

It was a frustrating night for City in the Russian capital as they surrendered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2.

Kompany insisted he was not looking for excuses for the result but felt the issue should be highlighted.

He said: "No, it didn't have an effect on the players. It doesn't have an effect, it's just little things when you leave with a result like this.

"Obviously you can't deny there's a bit of frustration, and I'm not looking for an excuse, but if you want to play it fair then you've got to let your sponsors have some tickets, but why the hell do we not have any fans here? Why?

"What have our fans done wrong? So it needs to be looked at, it needs to be changed, because our fans shouldn't be punished."

UEFA is likely to face questions over the issue. There was no comment at the match but it is understood UEFA was aware of the issue. City are also understood to have highlighted the matter.

Three sides of the ground were closed but the chanting and cheering throughout did appear to undermine the ban on supporters.

UEFA actually has little control over how the 300 sponsors' tickets are distributed. Of the rest of the tickets, each club receives 75 for their own delegates, 50 go to the children involved in the pre-match ceremony and their parents and there are 150 media.

After the match, CSKA media director Sergey Aksenov insisted the club had nothing to do with the fans who entered.

He said: "Those people you are talking about are 360 people from the UEFA Champions Club - partners, sponsors. If they are CKSA fans they are good for us. Everyone is invited by UEFA, not CSKA."

This latest controversy involving CSKA and City came a year after Yaya Toure was racially abused by supporters at the same ground.

That was the first of a series of offences culminating in the current stadium closure. CSKA also have to play their next two home European matches behind closed doors, although they are appealing against the judgement.

CSKA claimed their draw after City conceded a controversial penalty four minutes from time,

It was suggested to City boss Manuel Pellegrini that the presence of supporters may have influenced the referee's decision but Pellegrini said: "Well I agree but maybe it is not my duty to talk about things that do not correspond to my duty.

"I think UEFA has its rules. This stadium was closed doors to everyone.

"I don't know who has permission to give entrance to all those peoples, but really it is not my duty. I don't want to talk about the referee or other things. I don't want to be punished again."

Source: PA