Man City fans boo the anthems, and it has become a home-game fixture
Manchester City fans have booed the Premier League and Champions League anthems before kick-off at the Etihad Stadium, and the protest has become a regular feature of home games. BBC Sport reports that the booing was at its loudest against Ipswich, the first home game after City was found guilty of breaching the Premier League's financial rules.
The anthems are played over the speakers shortly before kick-off, and they are a ritual that most fans stand for. At the Etihad, tens of thousands of supporters jeered the Premier League anthem in the same way, a pattern BBC Sport described as a "day of defiance" in an earlier match report. The booing of the Champions League anthem has been audible too, including before City's match against AEK Athens.
Dave Wilson, a City season-ticket holder, told BBC Sport that he could not remember a home Premier League or Champions League game where the anthems had not been booed. He said the Ipswich booing was not organised. In his view it was a symptom of several grievances coming together at once.
Those grievances go back a long way. The club's fans have been angry with the league since February 2023, when 115 charges for breaching financial rules were first announced. Clubs have also clashed with European football's governing body, UEFA, for years. In 2012 UEFA fined Porto about £17,000 after City complained of racial abuse towards Mario Balotelli, and it fined City about £24,000 for returning one minute late for the second half of a match against Sporting. In 2014 UEFA fined City £49m and capped its Champions League squad size after the club failed Financial Fair Play rules, which limit how much a club can spend beyond its income. A Mirror report on the Champions League booing lists that £49m fine alongside limits on transfer spending and a restricted squad size.
The club has also won a major case. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which hears sporting disputes, overturned City's two-year ban from European competitions. It cleared the club of disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions.
Booing at football is not new, and it is not only a City story. Everton had 10 points deducted for breaching profit and sustainability rules, a penalty later cut to six on appeal. In their first game back at Goodison Park after the sanction, Everton fans loudly booed the Premier League anthem. Some held up red cards reading "corrupt" under the league's logo. Liverpool supporters also booed "Abide With Me" and "God Save the Queen" before the FA Cup final two seasons ago, according to BBC Sport.
On the pitch, City are doing well. They were top of the Premier League having won all seven league games so far this season, and they travelled to Aston Villa next.
The fans have an organised voice of their own. The Citizens Trust, a member-led supporters' union set up earlier this year, has Nick Clarke as its interim chair. Whether the anthem protests continue will depend on whether the grievances behind them are resolved, and nobody has yet said that they will be.
