City terminate SeatExchange deal

Announced on the Official Site:

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Club would like to inform supporters that the Seat Exchange service has been regrettably terminated. All transactions that have taken place for the Burnley, Hull and Chelsea games will be honoured by the Club.

Supporters who have yet to receive confirmation of their ticket for any of the above games are advised to contact Supporter Services on 0870 062 1894 option 2 or email supporterservices@mcfc.co.uk

This leaves me in a bit of a predicament.

Access to a guaranteed seat was the main advantage of getting involved with the Sydney Blues. The SeatExchange "service" was one of the reasons I justified getting a Seasoncard, as I could recoup a bit of the money outlaid for the games that either myself or other Blues could not attend.

However, from the first match it was painfully apparent that there were problems with the system.

The service was unavailable for the first home game against Wolverhampton, and when I finally used it for the Arsenal match, I was less than impressed.

The ticket, valued at the retail of £38, was sold for £33.63. Which I could live with — I thought that cut sounded decent, especially when considering they charged the buyer an additional 15% on that retail price (£43.70 all up).

However, I received an email twelve days later that this would not be the case.

Unfortunately there was an error with some of the automated seller emails sent out recently to season ticket holders, who sold their seat for this fixture. The email may have quoted an incorrect refund. We apologise for this.

Please find below confirmation of your sale and the correct refund you will receive, payable 14 days after the fixture.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send us a message via the Contact Us link at the foot of each page on the website.

Thank you for using the Manchester City Seat Exchange!

Consequently I received a cheque for £19.52. However, the biggest complaint came from those selling junior season tickets... people selling tickets for over forty pounds on the website received a refund of just £4.43.

SeatExchange posted the following response on Bluemoon after several complaints:

The reason for the difference exists because the Club has also determined that Seasoncard holders should not be able to profit from the sale of the ticket, but buyers should also not be able to purchase for less than the matchday price to ensure that the service does not affect sales from its own Box Office.

Furthermore, whilst the difference between the selling price and the purchase price is shared with the Club to pay for the operation of the service, the portion retained by Seat Exchange also goes towards offsetting the significant sponsorship fees we pay to support the Club as an Official Partner.

Seat Exchange provides a number of benefits to supporters and the Club, including giving Seasoncard holders greater value by being able to sell their seat for matches they cannot attend, and giving supporters the opportunity to buy additional tickets, even when areas of the Stadium or the entire match has sold out at the Club's box office.

Seat Exchange also contribute to the Club through our sponsorship fee, by sharing revenues from the secondary ticketing service itself, facilitating additional concession revenue from seats that would otherwise be empty, and increasing Seasoncard sales and renewals.

Now the first paragraph is completely reasonable — Seasoncard holders shouldn't be able to profit from selling individual games, nor should people be able to buy the ticket for less than face value. Fair enough.

The second paragraph is the one that leaves you scratching your head. "Offset the significant cost of sponsorship"? That cost is all part and parcel of being a sponsor! You pay the club a certain sum of money to advertise on the website, at the ground and in the programme, and as a result of the increased exposure, you should see an increase in sales to match that investment.

The difference between the sale price and the refund (as shown in some cases, around 90% of the purchase price), should have gone to the football club, or an equivalent charity, such as City In The Community — not to pay for the company's sponsorship of the club.

So in a way I'm glad that the arrangement has been cancelled, as SeatExchange were cowboys and rip-off merchants... however, without a service that allows me to recoup some of my season ticket investment, I'll have to consider cancelling it for next season.

Ex-City player Tony Coleman slags off Australia

If you haven't heard it before, the "Blue Tuesday" show on BBC Radio Manchester with Paul Lake, Ian Cheeseman, and the delightful Emily Brobyn is an entertaining and informative look at current Manchester City issues. It's well worth the weekly listen.

However, last night's in particular was very intriguing, not only for the discussion about Munich chants, but also an interview with 1969 FA Cup winner Tony Coleman.

Mr Coleman (no relation fortunately) spent the best part of three minutes alternating between grunting and slagging off Australia and its people. Which is a shame, because I would have liked to hear more about what it was like to play in the last City side that won the FA Cup, but nevermind.

You can listen to it here on BBC iPlayer (about 41 minutes in), I'll try to isolate a recording of it too.

Here's what he said, make up your own mind:

Ian Cheeseman: You are the most elusive of the sort of 1969 team, that particular team, because of the fact you live in Australia, how did you end up living there and not staying in this country?

Tony Coleman: My wife wanted to go and live with her sister and her mother, because they'd gone over there a couple of years before... and because I love my wife I'd said "yeah I'll give it a chance" but I've never settled there. They don't like us there as a race of people, the English. And I was fed up with fighting with them and that... they're the most bigoted race I've ever come across.

Georgie Best hit the nail on the head. George Best came out as a guest player for Brisbane United, and I went to see him, and I said "what do you think?" and he just laughed his head off. It was printed in the paper, he said "they're neanderthals, and they don't like anybody but themselves."

IC: Strong words those aren't they... how long have you actually lived there for?

TC: Twenty-five years...

IC: So why stay that long?

TC: I'm not staying anymore, I'm divorced now, my children are grown up, so next year, I hope, when I reach pension age, I'm allowed to go to Thailand. I bought a home in Thailand, so I'm going to live in Thailand. And Australia can pfffft (raspberry/fart noise).

Oh yeah, I hate it, I've never settled down since I've been there. It's just, I don't know... it's just a big huge desert, you know what I mean, everyone sort of lives on the coast, but in the middle, there's nothing there you know.

And the way they treat the Aborigines when you see them in the shanty towns... people wouldn't believe it was a civilised country, they really wouldn't.

Gee Tony, sorry you feel that way. The reason you probably didn't get on with anyone here is not because you're English, it's because you're a miserable bastard.

I hope the sale of your medals goes ok. In fact, I'll chip in with the first bid of $463. That's enough to get you a Jetstar flight from Sydney to Bangkok. One-way.

We're not all bad down here mate, shame you couldn't get over the massive chip on your shoulder to see it.

Carling Cup Quarter Final Draw

It's Arsenal reserves at home.

Although we didn't have much trouble against the Arsenal at home last time, it's a tough draw. But really, all opponents at this stage of the competition are going to be tough. Could have been better, could have been worse.

Is now the year we break our quarter-final curse? We've gone out of domestic cups at this stage in some pretty dire ways in recent history (Blackburn and West Ham spring to mind), but this is a new City. The eyes need to be firmly on that prize.

The full draw is as follows:

Blackburn v Chelsea
Manchester City v Arsenal
Manchester United v Tottenham
Portsmouth v Aston Villa

Are City legitimate Premier League contenders this year?

It may be premature to start discussing the potential of Manchester City to break into the top four this season, let alone claiming the title, but seven matches in and facing yet another pointless international break, it's definitely not beyond the realms of possibility.

Coming from tenth to first in one season is a mammoth task, there is no doubt about that. I'm trying to look at it as objectively as possible, but I don't think I can knowing that I'll be $1000 better of thanks to Sportingbet if we do.

City are extremely fortunate in the fact that we have a range of circumstances that could put us in a much position than our direct rivals.

The main thing in our favour is the lack of European football. Last season's UEFA Cup journey was probably the highlight of our season, and matches against Hamburg and Schalke will live long in the memory of most Blues. But, the competition was a major distraction and a burden on our small squad.

We have the distinct advantage of playing around twenty games or so less than our Champions League rivals, and this will be more evident in the new year as the Carling Cup, FA Cup, and Champions League all begin to clash with the Premiership. We won't have this luxury next season however, assuming that we are playing European football ourselves (most likely Champions League).

We also have the ability to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window in a much greater capacity than our nearest rivals. Chelsea aren't able to buy anyone either courtesy of a transfer ban. So if we're a player or two short due to injury, fatigue, or the African Cup of Nations, we can buy the odd player as cover.

Also, don't think that we'll be so lucky in the summer with transfers this season. Everyone knew that we were going to buy players — but no-one could have predicted we would purchase to the extent that we did. Don't expect Fergie to settle for just Owen and Valencia next year...

Besides, our squad is too far away from contention as it is. Man-for-man, we have a side capable of pushing the best in the league. Don't get me wrong, we have some players that could do with replacing, but have you seen some of the rubbish the Rags and the Dippers have on their books? Would the likes of Babel, Ngog, Skrtel, O'Shea, Evans, or even little Mickey Owen strengthen our best seventeen? Outside of Gerrard and Torres, Liverpool look remarkably ordinary since the departure of Xabi Alonso. The Rags are solely reliant on fat boy Rooney, grandfather Bryan Riggs, and lazy twat Berbatov. An injury or two would severely test their depth.

We were a dodgy extra minute away from salvaging a draw at Old Scaffold — we can flog them at home.

Last season we finished tenth with 50 points. To win the league, we would have to pick up another 40 points — that is, win at least another thirteen games that we didn't last year. It's a tough task, but we can dare to dream.

Have faith Blues.

Daylight Savings Time

Don't forget to wind the clocks forward an hour (and an extra seven minutes if your name is Sir Alex Ferguson).

3pm England kickoffs now are 1am local time.