CITY'S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WAIT ENDS IN ISTANBUL

Victory provides the culmination of 15 years of Abu Dhabi ownership

- Keir Radnedge  

Manchester City’s deserved coronation as the new kings of European club football thrilled not only their fans but all the neutrals who had waited impatiently for a fresh name to be engraved among the old Champions League aristocracy.

Victory then for a new name but victory also for the “new football,” a moment in the history of the game which sees nation states deploy unmatched financial muscle to conquering effect with more than mere football glory in mind.

With a poignant coincidence, City celebrated the greatest success in their history on the weekend that immediately preceded the death of Silvio Berlusconi. His Milan piloted the concept of a club as one image-building piece of a corporate jigsaw back in the1980s.

Some analysts, who delighted in the sight of City’s stars racing in deliriously manic relief to all corners of the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, suggested that the football can be divorced from the governance issues and those angrilydenounced115 Premier League charges (that City vehemently deny). Not true. Money is a golden thread. Like pretending no link between politics and sport.