“We’re all going on a European tour, a European tour, a European tour!” sung the Manchester City fans at the Joie Stadium on Thursday evening.
They have not had those bragging rights for four years, back when US Women’s National Team players Sam Mewis (now retired) and Rose Lavelle, and Lionesses Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway used to play for the club.
City’s last appearance in the Champions League proper was when they beat Barcelona 2-1 in the 2020-21 quarter-final second leg, the only team to defeat the eventual winners throughout that campaign, but lost 4-2 on aggregate.
Since then City have been excluded from the European party. They failed to qualify in consecutive years, losing to Real Madrid on both occasions, and fell outside of the top three of the 2022-2023 Women’s Super League campaign.
Now, that frustrating run is over. Goals from Chloe Kelly and Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw completed an emphatic 8-0 aggregate qualifying win over Paris FC, securing a long overdue return to the Champions League group stages.
“This is where we want to be,” said City manager Gareth Taylor after the game. “I’ve always felt, on the outside looking in over the last couple of years, that we would have a really good shot if we were there.”
Chloe Kelly celebrates scoring City’s first goal against Paris FC (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
City have underperformed in recent years, last winning a trophy, the League Cup, in 2022, but ran Chelsea close to the league title last year, losing on goal difference. One of the biggest downfalls, however, of not winning the WSL last season, according to Taylor, was that it prevented automatic qualification for the Champions League group stages. They had to, in his words, “pull (their) sleeves up” in the summer to prepare for qualification.
Paris FC were the giant-killers last year, knocking out 2022-23 semi-finalists Arsenal and Wolfsburg in the qualifying rounds. City, however, blew away the French side. Manager Sandrine Soubeyrand, whose side regularly face Lyon and PSG in the domestic league and lost to Chelsea in last year’s group stages, said after the first leg against City that her team had never played against a team like them.
“They’re hard to read, they have a wide variety of moves,” the French coach said in her post-match press conference. “You have to be strong in duels. They handle the ball very well and are very technical and athletic. Honestly, the football Manchester City plays is the football I love.”
The question for City is what impact they can make in this competition, ahead of today’s group stage draw. They are guaranteed to face one of the domestic champions Barcelona, Lyon or Bayern Munich in the group stages.
“I feel we can go a long way,” said Taylor. “Anything can happen. We just want a crack at it. Now is the fun part.”
Europe brings its own demands. Like Arsenal and Chelsea, City will compete in all four competitions (WSL, FA Cup, Continental Cup and Champions League) and Taylor will have to rotate his team because of the demands on players’ workloads. “It’s a challenge,” he said. “Some people would frown upon that but I actually enjoy it.”
Quality and depth are important, as is experience. Taylor has players who have won European Championships with the Netherlands and England but only Leila Ouahabi (2020-21 winner with Barcelona) and Jill Roord (2022-23 runner-up with Wolfsburg) have reached the Champions League final in recent years. As Lyon and Barcelona, who have won the last nine titles between them, will testify, it takes time to navigate this elite competition.
City are run on a relatively strict budget (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Off the pitch, the Champions League opens up an avenue of potential commercial opportunities for the club.
“We’re on a journey to become the best women’s sporting organisation in the world,” City women’s managing director Charlotte O’Neill told The Athletic after the match.
A key part of that journey, according to O’Neill, lies in City’s aim to be financially sustainable. “Champions League football ultimately contributes to the commercial value of the club,” she said. City’s participation in Europe will unlock areas of revenue from matchday, increased brand visibility to a global audience, building player profiles and a growing fan base. The further they progress, the greater the revenue opportunities.
City earned €100,000 (£84,000; $112,000) for beating Paris FC, plus a further €400,000 (split into a down payment of €300,000 and a balance of €100,000) for making the group stage. Every group stage win will see them pocket €50,000 or €17,000 for a draw and if they top their group, they will receive a bonus of €20,000. If they make the quarter-finals, that is another €160,000, for the semi-finals, €180,000, for the final, €200,000 and €350,000 if they go all the way.
Taylor, who believes the team do “good things on a really tight budget” compared to other WSL sides, hopes the revenue generated will be reinvested into the team in the future.
“Man City is a big club,” he said. “In the women’s game, we feel like we belong there (in the Champions League), of course we do, because we are a big team and we have huge ambitions.”
(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
