City Watch: Blues prepare for Club World Cup

It’s been just over a week since the season came to it’s conclusion against Fulham, and already I’m wishing that football was back. 

One or two weekends off the copious amounts of travelling doesn’t sound too bad, but a few months might send me mad.

We don’t have to wait too long, though, as the Club World Cup begins in a few weeks time, and City will be back in action.

I alluded to the issues with the new format when I was a guest on last week’s SportsTalk (Tameside Radio’s weekly sports show broadcast every Friday night from 7pm!), and if I’m being honest, even though having some football to watch over the summer sounds fantastic to cure my boredom, I don’t agree with the competition at all.

The way I see it, there have been match going fans who have dedicated their lives to the club and supporting it, spending their hard earned money watched the Blues week in week out, and you start thinking with tournaments like this, slowly but surely, these fans are being priced out of the trips.

I don’t know a single City supporter who can afford to go to the United States, where the competition is being held, to watch every single game, that is assuming, we get to the latter stages.

Then there’s the player issue, the squad have just gone through another season playing almost two games per week all season, so this would usually be their time to, not just physically, but mentally recharge, spend time with their families and prepare for next season.

With the International games this weekend and the Club World Cup, there won’t be a real chance to do this, as the season begins again in August. 

In my opinion, competitions like this are thoughtless of what’s most important in this and any sport, the fans.

Without the fans, without the people who spend money, take time out of their lives to support these teams simply would not exist. 

It breaks my heart a little, not just because I can’t watch the games live, but because I hate to see the people who dedicate themselves thought so ill of when organising competitions like this.

Closer to the time, I will start previewing the Club World Cup in more detail, but I wanted this column to be about the issues that surround the tournament and the impacts they have on fans. 

I’ll leave it there for this week, have a good week, Blues!