‘The least we can do’: Manchester City players to reimburse fans after ‘embarrassing’ loss
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- Manchester City captains will reimburse 374 fans for tickets to their shocking 3-1 Champions League loss in freezing Norway, totaling roughly $13,000.
- Bodø/Glimt, a Norwegian club in its first Champions League season, delivered one of the competition’s biggest upsets in the victory.
- Captain Erling Haaland called the loss “embarrassing.” He and the other captains later acknowledged the sacrifice fans made traveling to witness the defeat.
The trip was long — about 1,100 miles from Manchester, England, to Bodø, Norway.
The temperatures were freezing — around 28 degrees, with the wind chill around 10 degrees.
The results were not ideal — at least not for the 374 Manchester City fans who traveled to the fishing town north of the Arctic Circle only to see their team suffer one of the biggest upsets in Champions League history.
None of this was lost on Manchester City’s team captains after their club’s shocking 3-1 loss to Bodø/Glimt. In a joint statement the following day, the four players — Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Rodri — announced they would reimburse every Machester City fan who bought a ticket for the game.
“Our supporters mean everything to us,” the statement read. “We know the sacrifice that our fans make when they travel across the world to support us home and away and we will never take it for granted. They are the best fans in the world.
“We also recognize that it was a lot of traveling for the fans who supported us in the freezing cold throughout a difficult evening for us on the pitch. Covering the cost of these tickets for the fans who traveled to Bodø is the least we can do.”
As the man behind the 1984 L.A. Olympics soccer tournament and the 1994 World Cup, Alan Rothenberg arguably had more to do with writing the story of modern U.S. Soccer than anyone.
According to the BBC, away tickets to the game cost around $33.75 in U.S. dollars, which would make the total amount to be handed out by the thoughtful and embarrassed group of Manchester City team leaders close to $13,000.
One of England’s most successful soccer teams, Manchester City has spent more than $500 million on its superstar roster over the last year. But for at least one day, it was no match for a club playing in its first Champions League.
Bodø/Glimt took a 3-0 lead on two first-half goals by Kasper Høgh and one in the 58th minute by Jens Petter Hauge. Rayan Cherki scored Manchester City’s only goal in the 60th minute.
“It’s embarrassing,” City’s Norwegian striker Haaland said after the loss, which came three days after a 2-0 defeat to Premier League rival Manchester United.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
