‘Do it properly’ – Simon Jordan left unimpressed by Man City players refunding ‘three minutes of their time’

Simon Jordan believes Manchester City’s decision to refund fans who made the trip for their loss to Bodo/Glimt doesn’t go far enough.

City were humbled in the Champions League by the Norwegian side as two goals from Kasper Hogh and Jens Petter Hauge’s strike saw Bodo/Glimt claim a 3-1 win, their first ever in the Champions League proper.

Getty

Getty

To make matters worse, Pep Guardiola’s side were reduced to ten men two minutes later as Rodri was dismissed for two quickfire yellows.

Following their poor performance in the Arctic Circle, City opted to pay back the cost of the match ticket to all the fans that attended the game at Bodo/Glimt’s home.

“Our supporters mean everything to us,” a statement from the captains’ group of Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Rodri and Erling Haaland 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 recognise that it was a lot of travelling 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 travelled to Bodo is the least we can do.

“We’re ready to fight on Saturday for our game against Wolves and then again next Wednesday when we face Galatasaray in front of our amazing fans at the Etihad.”

The total cost of the refund to fans is £9,357 and will come straight out of the players’ pockets as way of apology for Tuesday’s sub-par display.

Jordan, though, was left unimpressed by the players, feeling the refund of the ticket equated is merely a drop in the ocean of their bank accounts.

Players have ‘obligations’ to fans

“It’s certainly not an obligation upon them to do it, so that’s the first thing,” Jordan began on White and Jordan.

“The fact they’re now aware of it because now they’re grandstanding about what they’ve done brings it into the public domain about what football actually is.

Getty

“Football is a different business than any other business in the world. It rewards people at such a level and it occupies such a degree of precedence and a component part of a football club.

“One of the most important component parts of it are its fans and the relationship that the players and the obligations that players have to their fans.

“The only obligations that players have is to represent the club and the fans to their very best ability and never let them down. And you can accept getting beat.

“Now, the players clearly feel they’ve broken that obligation because they feel that the performance they put out against Bodo/Glimt was not meeting the obligation that they do have.

“Do they have an obligation to give them any money back? No. Do they have an obligation to represent the fans with the very best version of themselves? Yes they do.”

‘Contributing 3 minutes of their working day’

Jordan then tore into the City players, and felt if they wanted to make a ‘big song and dance’ about a refund, then they should have not just refunded the the cost of the matchday ticket for the City fans.

AFP

City fans based in Manchester would’ve likely taken a flight to Norwegian capital before making the long journey north to Bodo – taking the journey distance to over 1,300 miles.

“They’ve gone to the fans and made a big song and dance about it rather than kept it to themselves,” Jordan added.

After host Jim White pointed out City merely put out a shortly-worded statement, Jordan responded: “Why does it need a statement?

“It’s a private transaction between 374 fans and Man City’s players, that are on £6million a week.

“So you’ve got a squad out there that’s on £6m a week that has offered to give back 374 fans £9,000, which equates to about three minutes work of a player that’s on £10,000 an hour, which is what these players are on.”

“It looks like the average player is on about £150,000 to £200,000 a week,” Jordan continued.

“So if you look at this and and say, what are they contributing? They’re contributing about three minutes worth of their working day.

“Because their working day consists of about three hours a day, let’s be honest about it. And four days a week and a match day, so they’re doing about 15, 16 hours a week.

“So they’re getting about 10 to £15,000 an hour.”

‘Do a gesture properly’

And when it came to how much he feels the City players should’ve given to the fans, he added: “This £25 ticket is not what people spent going to that football match.

“If they want to do something, why not give them £300 a fan? It’s probably cost you a couple hundred quid for a plane flight.

“We’re not going to pay for your accommodation because you’ve got to benefit that accommodation but we’ll pay for your flight.

“There is 100 grand and what would 100 grand mean to these players? It would mean five grand to the average player in that squad.

“A 100 grand’s worth of contribution would mean absolutely nothing to these players so don’t be telling me that I’ve got to turn around and say how wonderful it is because they’ve given £9,000.

Jordan then concluded: “Do a gesture properly or don’t do it.”