David Sykes, 49, follows Manchester City and England home and away. He's watched City in 30 different countries, one of their hardcore fans who will travel to watch their team if they play a friendly in Abu Dhabi (as they did in May) or a League Cup game in England. One reason Sykes started watching England was because City seldom travelled abroad.
"That has all changed now," he laughs. He's enjoying City's current successes but he still watches England. The former British Army combat medic, who did two tours of Afghanistan, waited for City's Champions League group to be drawn in August and then set about booking trips to Munich, Moscow and Rome. He had not been back long from the World Cup in Brazil, but football has been a huge part of his life and he's watched England 132 times away from home since Hampden Park in 1976.
Sykes, a well-known face at City matches, planned a trip to Moscow for the game in two weeks with friends and booked a flight via London Heathrow.
"It was only 150 pounds," he said. "Though the Russian visa was about the same again and hotels aren't cheap in Moscow." He knows because he was one of the 300 City fans in the Russian capital when his team played CSKA last season.
Then he received news CSKA had been ordered to play their next three matches behind closed doors because of a racist incident involving their fans in their game against Roma in September.
This meant that despite doing absolutely nothing wrong, City fans like Sykes, who lives in Bury, won't be able to watch a game in a city they've paid to travel to.
"I'm gutted," he says. "And I'm still going, I've not given up on getting in. I'm gutted that City haven't made a case for the travelling fans watching the match. There's only about 100 of us, not 1,000."
While City are under no obligation to do anything, they've asked for details from all their supporters who've made travel arrangements, yet there isn't a precedent. City did compensate fans who'd booked to see a preseason game in Switzerland, only for that game to be cancelled, while fans of other clubs who've had games switched to behind closed doors have experienced different scenarios.
Fans of Irish side St Patrick's Athletic who travelled to Steaua Bucharest for a 2009 Europa League match watched the game from behind glass in an executive box. Around 200 Schalke 04 fans were allowed into a 2013 Europa League game at PAOK in Greece after protests, as were 200 Northern Ireland fans in Serbia in 2011 after the Irish FA protested and pushed for a 60,000-pound compensation for fans who had booked to travel. UEFA relented and stated they'd done that as a "goodwill gesture." Why can't they do the same for approximately 100 City fans who've shelled out money to go to Moscow? Did UEFA even consider that there would be away fans?
There has been talk of City fans hiring a room in a skyscraper overlooking the stadium in Moscow as Bayern Munich fans did for their recent game, but the bigger picture here is the failure of football's authorities to understand matchgoing supporters, whom they view with suspicion and mistrust.
"They don't appreciate the culture or longstanding support," said Sykes. "The decision-makers in management positions pretend to be football fans, but they've never been on the shop floor and followed their team home and away. They don't understand the mentality of hardcore football fans because they've never been one."
Matchgoing fans are given scant consideration. When the latest round of Premier League televised games was announced this week, they included Manchester United matches at Southampton on a Monday night in December and at Tottenham on midday on Dec. 28. It's impossible to get back from Southampton using public transport after that match. The main Manchester to London rail line is also subject to closure and severe disruption around the Tottenham game on the 28th, so that means a road trip from Manchester and a 6am start. Those who do travel to Southampton -- and United sell out their allocation for every single domestic away game -- will now have to take time off work. Football used to be played on a Saturday. Now many games are also played on Sunday -- and on every other day of the week. Fans are used to it and they're prepared to be flexible, but Monday night in Southampton, the furthest trip Manchester United will make in the league this season? I've watched United several times at Southampton at night and didn't get back to Manchester until 3am each time.
The cost of this sort of scheduling falls on the travelling fan, the most loyal of supporters and often the ones providing the atmosphere that the television companies are keen to advertise as an integral part of their coverage.
In 2011, Sir Alex Ferguson said that television has too much power, stating: "When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price. Television is god at the moment. It is king."
Managers like Ferguson and players have benefitted from the avalanche of television money, but what of the fans? In England, they now get to see some of the best players in the world. Admission prices rose substantially but have now tailed off, in part because of supply and demand but also because it's easier for clubs to make money from commercial deals and television money rather than through hitting fans with a ticket-price rise. There have been no price rises at Manchester United for five years now, which is to be welcomed, but it's time someone in authority gave a thought to the away fans, the best fans in football, the type who travel to Moscow without a ticket or Southampton on a Monday night.