Pep Guardiola wanted more Man City fans at FA Cup win over Fulham

Last updated on 26 January 2020.From the section Man City645

Guardiola disappointed with fan turnout at FA Cup win

Pep Guardiola has questioned why more Manchester City fans did not turn up for his side's 4-0 win over Fulham in the FA Cup fourth round.

The attendance of 39,223 at Etihad Stadium was the third highest in the round, behind West Ham and Newcastle.

"Today was not full - I don't know why," the City manager said.

He added he hoped there would be "more people" and "more support" at Wednesday's Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Manchester United.

"It is a chance to come back to Wembley for three years in a row," said the Spaniard, whose side have won the Carabao Cup for the past two seasons and lead United 3-1 after the first leg.

"Hopefully our fans can come, more people than today.

"Hopefully they can support us more and make an intelligent game to reach the final."

Ticket prices for Sunday's comfortable win over the Championship side were priced from £10-£35 for adults and £1-£20 for under-18s.

The attendance at City's last Premier League game against Crystal Palace was a near-capacity 54,439.

West Ham's 1-0 defeat against West Brom was the highest attendance in the round, with 58,911 at London Stadium, in stark contrast to the 8,071 who watched the all-Premier League tie between Burnley and Norwich.

Guardiola's side's average league attendance this season is 54,391, while on average 50,124 people have attended their three Champions League group games.

Their third-round tie against Port Vale attracted an attendance of 52,433 - 13,210 more than against Fulham - and in their two FA Cup home games last season, against Rotherham and Burnley, the average attendance was 51,414.

It is not the first time that Guardiola has questioned the support of Manchester City's fans, with the 49-year-old disappointed that the club only sold 25,000 of their 30,000 allocation for their FA Cup semi-final against Brighton last season.

"I don't know the reason why, maybe the club could answer it better," the City boss said at the time.

"I say to the fans, not just ours, when they can go they will go and maybe there's different reasons, honestly I don't know."

However, the former Barcelona manager has praised the fans this season, calling them "incredible" but reiterating that the team "need them" after their 3-1 win over Leicester City in the league.

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645 comments

Comment posted by dmjnr, at 21:17 26 Jan 2020
As a City fan I'm absolutely disgusted with Guardiola's comments. I can't believe he has the arrogance to complain not enough fans turned up. Considering it's the last weekend before payday for a lot of people, and the amount of games played since mid-December, and the fact that none of the fans are on the £300k+ a week he's on, he should apologise immediately! He's so out of touch!
Comment posted by spamfiend, at 21:16 26 Jan 2020
Sorry Pep, but unlike you and your mega millionaire footballer , How Public still hasn't been paid since before Christmas and are generally skint. At to this the fact it was on the TV, then people will stay at home. A £30 ticket goes a long way towards the weekly food shop or press a lot of petrol in the car. Priorities are not football so go back to your mansion and watch Top Gear 👍
Comment posted by fp1, at 20:59 26 Jan 2020
The price of a ticket, Man City play a lot of home games, it was Fulham so not likely to be that competitive and it was free on terrestrial tv.
Comment posted by Waldor, at 21:00 26 Jan 2020
Because you don't have many real fans?
Comment posted by Tim, at 21:12 26 Jan 2020
Because City don’t yet have the fan-base of Liverpool or Man U, and tickets are expensive. They have to choose when to spend 50-100 for a family outing. No everyone is a millionaire a la Guardiola
Comment posted by Sha, at 21:24 26 Jan 2020
Oh dear Pep. Even as a Liverpool fan I have to take the supporters' side here. Ok for him to tell fans to turn up when he's sitting on his millions. City don't have the fan base and long history of other clubs that would attract people to a 4th round tie. Shame on you Pep.
Comment posted by D1679401126065, at 21:29 26 Jan 2020
"Today was not full - I don't know why," the City manager said.

That's a bit rich Pep considering most of your first team didn't turn up either!

Besides, the tickets are too expensive and the public don't earn the salaries of your millionaire players!

If you want more fans to come then why not do what they do with the women's team and give the tickets away for free?
Comment posted by Dr Phibes, at 20:58 26 Jan 2020
What's he on about?

It was more full than it normally is...
Comment posted by cityblue1980, at 21:12 26 Jan 2020
I consider myself a true city fan, went home and away for twenty years. I now have a mortgage and 2 kids in nursery, it is simply not feasible to go to all the games given that city usually get far in all competitions we have alot more games than others. Funny how nothing has been written about other premier league teams attendances this week.....
Comment posted by D1710626747853, at 21:05 26 Jan 2020
We all know why, City don't have that many fans. Can buy all the trophies you want, fiddle FFP all you like, stockpile £60m bench players, but City will always be the second team in Manchester, and completely irrelevant outside of it. United can get 60,000 v's almost anyone, City struggle to get 40,000 for big matches - despite what the figures they release say. Small club with infinite money.
Comment posted by ukeugene, at 22:32 26 Jan 2020
pep, you are both a brilliant coach and manager. you are also a respected advocate of catalan independence. The reason that "only" 30,000 fans watched the game was MONEY. We cannot afford to go to all games. Sorry Pep but it is easy for you, earning millions of pounds, to be critical of people earning minimum wage to decide to spend their money on FOOD. Sorry.
Comment posted by John Leach, at 22:05 26 Jan 2020
Mr Guardiolo is obviously so disconnected from the financial reality of the real fans situation that he makes such crass statements. He ought to think before making such outrageous statements, we earn a few thousand pounds a year not hundreds of thousand pounds a week.
Comment posted by Tony, at 22:02 26 Jan 2020
Maybe if people earned anywhere from £100,000 upwards per week as most of your top earners do then we can afford to go to games every week...

Personally I have to budget my money and put the mortgage and other bills ahead of the money needed for a day at football as it's not just the ticket price but also the cost of travel and food.

Some of us live in the real world
Comment posted by itsalwayssunnyindenton, at 21:43 26 Jan 2020
For those of us living in the real world it’s pay day next week. The last one way 6 weeks ago before Christmas. Doesn’t take Columbo to connect the dots.
Comment posted by WorsleyGirlEllie, at 22:16 26 Jan 2020
I'm a United fan, but confused as to why the BBC has opened a hys on this. It's almost like they want to encourage petty small-minded comments from rival football fans towards a club who has had more success than any other team over the past few years?
Comment posted by Panda, at 23:30 26 Jan 2020
Has anyone thought people don't have the money

It's a day's pay for a family of 4

The country is broke
Comment posted by BrucetheCat, at 20:58 26 Jan 2020
Perhaps people just haven't got the money all the time Pep, especially in January
Comment posted by ctid, at 22:07 26 Jan 2020
What do you want from us pep? Working class City, with rich owners. How about you step up and lower prices, add incentives etc. WORKING CLASS CITY. Also it doesn't help when away teams only bring hand fulls of fans.
Comment posted by RuGbY LeAgUe fan, at 07:01 27 Jan 2020
Not everyone has your salary Pep.
Thirty five quid takes nearly half a day to earn at minimum wage.
Most people are more worried about paying the bills.
Comment posted by Fatdave, at 21:04 26 Jan 2020
Tickets cost too much! Simple stuff. Folk are cheesed off paying to watch millionaires kick a football around. UK average wage maybe 30 grand. Most of these guys earning that in a week. Some 10-15 times that in a week.