EUROPA League
MANCHESTER CITY FANS BRAND UEFA AS MAFIA AND CARTEL
Manchester City may be set to go to war with UEFA, but time is of the essence for the English champions to satisfy their quest to win the Champions League.
City head to the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday (Feb 26), knowing failure to beat 13-time winners Real Madrid over two legs could be their final European adventure for two years.
Uefa slapped a stunning two-season ban on City earlier this month for overstating sponsorship income between 2012 and 2016 to breach Financial Fair Play rules and failing to cooperate once an investigation was re-opened following the leak of internal emails to German magazine Der Spiegel.
City remain belligerent and insist they will beat Uefa off the field. An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport will decide their fate for the next two years.
In the meantime, Pep Guardiola’s men have to finally get it right on the field to satisfy City’s long-wait to conquer Europe.
Now in their ninth season of Champions League football since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover transformed the club’s fortunes, City are still waiting for a landmark knockout win in the competition.
Even before the latest body blow of a European ban, the City support have not been enamoured by their new status as Champions League regulars.
The club have had to turn to social media influencers to try and sell tickets for group matches and the competition’s anthem is routinely jeered.
“Uefa Cartel” and “Uefa Mafia” were among the banners that greeted their first home outing since the ban was handed down against West Ham last week.
A run to the semi-finals before being beaten by Madrid in 2015/16 is their best ever showing in the competition.
Despite re-writing the history books domestically, Guardiola’s star-studded squad have fallen at the quarter-finals to English opposition in each of the past two seasons.
The contrast with Madrid could not be starker. For generations, Real have risen to the occasion on the Champions League stage, while City have crumbled under the pressure.
A former Barcelona coach and player, Guardiola hailed his old foes the “kings of Europe.”
And in an interview with Spanish newspaper AS last week, City’s Raheem Sterling insisted: “There is no better challenge than Real Madrid.”
However, a meeting with Madrid also offers City an opportunity to change the narrative.
The sort of ferocious atmosphere Guardiola has long pleaded for at the Etihad for Champions League games seems guaranteed when the Spanish giants travel to Manchester on March 17th.
With Liverpool streaking clear at the top of the Premier League, City’s season and arguably Guardiola’s legacy at the club comes down to what happens in this tie.
“If we don’t win it everybody is going to say we are failures like the last five years,” said midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. “It’s something we’ve not won yet.”
The only two Champions League winners in City’s squad are back-up goalkeepers Claudio Bravo and Scott Carson.
Motivation could not be greater for a host of world class players like De Bruyne, David Silva and Sergio Aguero to cap their careers with Champions League success.
Moreover, doing so this season would have the added benefit of sticking it to Uefa by capturing their flagship competition.
“I can’t believe they’re in the competition now. What would happen if City win this season?” former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. “Uefa will be desperate for Man City to be beaten by Madrid.”
All the more reason for City to not give European football’s governing body the satisfaction.
-AFP
Four-times Europa League winner Unai Emery booked an astonishing sixth final in the competition as a manager on Thursday when his Aston Villa team swept aside Nottingham Forest in the second leg of their all-English semi-final.
The 54-year-old Spaniard has won three times with Sevilla (2014, 2015, 2016) and once with Villarreal (2021) – either side of a defeat with Arsenal (2019) – deservedly earning him the epithet “Mr Europa League” from some fans and media.
Now he goes to the 2026 final seeking a fifth title, this time with Aston Villa against Bundesliga side Freiburg.
“His track record speaks for itself,” said Villa striker Ollie Watkins, heaping praise on his boss as the man to guarantee Europa League success. “We need to go and win it now.”
Emery was delighted with how his team overturned a 1-0 deficit to Forest in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final to score four times at home and win 4-1 on aggregate.
“Now we have to look to the final,” he said, hoping that Villa will do “something fantastic” for their fans.
Though thrilled at Thursday’s win, Emery left the pitch quickly after the final whistle, pumping his fist a few times at the crowd before letting his players enjoy the moment with fans
He and his Villa side will be favourites at the Europa League final in Istanbul on May 20, but Emery was taking nothing for granted. “Of course German teams are so difficult, their coaches, their players are so good,” he added of the upcoming opponents.
-Reuters
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List of teams which have qualified for the next round of the Europa League after the league phase concluded on Thursday, ranked by table position:
Directly to the round of 16:
1. Olympique Lyonnais (France)
2. Aston Villa (England)
3. Midtjylland (Denmark)
4. Real Betis (Spain)
5. Porto (Portugal)
6. Braga (Portugal)
7. Freiburg (Germany)
8. AS Roma (Italy)
Knockout phase play-off places (seeded)
9. Genk (Belgium)
10. Bologna (Italy)
11. VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
12. Ferencvaros (Hungary)
13. Nottingham Forest (England)
14. Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic)
15. Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
16. Celta Vigo (Spain)
Knockout phase play-off places (unseeded)
17. PAOK (Greece)
18. Lille (France)
19. Fenerbahce (Turkey)
20. Panathinaikos (Greece)
21. Celtic (Scotland)
22. Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
23. Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
24. SK Brann (Norway)
-Reuters
UEFA Europa League – Aston Villa v RB Salzburg – Villa Park, Birmingham, Britain – January 29, 2026 Aston
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Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv will not accept any away fan tickets for their Europa League match at Aston Villa next month, even if local authorities reverse the decision to ban their supporters, they said on Monday.
The ban followed safety concerns raised by British Police, who cited potential protests outside Villa Park, following demonstrations at Israel’s recent World Cup qualifiers in Oslo and Udine.
“From hard lessons learned we have taken the decision to decline any allocation offered on behalf of away fans and our decision should be understood in that context,” Maccabi said in a statement.
“We hope that circumstances will change and look forward to being able to play in Birmingham in a sporting environment in the near future.”
Aston Villa announced the decision last week, saying they were following instructions from the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), who are responsible for issuing safety certificates for games at Villa Park.
West Midlands Police described the match as high risk, past incidents, including violent confrontations and hate crime offences involving Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters ahead of a November 2024 game in Amsterdam.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described the announcement as “shameful”.
Villa are third in the Europa League standings while Maccabi Tel Aviv are 30th after two rounds.
-Reuters
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