‘Disaster, Absolute Disaster’ – Frank Lampard Extends Man City Loan Deal, Rubs New York City FC Fans Up The Wrong Way

Chris Wright

1st, January 2015

10 Comments

By Chris Wright

Britain Soccer Premier League

The announcement that Man City have extended Frank Lampard’s loan deal in order to allow him to play on until the end of the season has, unsurprisingly, not gone down well with supporters of the midfielder’s parent club, inbound MLS franchise New York City FC.

Having joined NYCFC as a marquee signing at the tail end of July after being released by Chelsea, Lampard immediately joined City on a six-month loan deal with the plan being for him to return to the States in January in time for the start of the 2015 MLS season.

However, City have since confirmed this morning that Lampard’s deal at The Etihad has been extended to the end of the 2014/15 Premier League season, meaning he’ll now miss NYCFC’s opening fixture on March 8th.

City’s little revelation has riled fans of the MLS side, many of whom have taken umbrage after buying season tickets and the like after being lured in by seeing both Lampard and David Villa used prominently in the NYCFC launch marketing hype.

Indeed, the news was quickly denounced by NYCFC supporters’ group The Third Rail, who issued the following statement:

“On behalf of the Third Rail, we would like to publicly denounce City Football Group’s and Frank Lampard’s decision to extend his loan to Manchester City until the end of the Premier League season.

“Many fans, including our members, decided to support the team, committed to season tickets, and bought merchandise under the impression that Frank Lampard would be playing for New York City Football Club, not Manchester City. Many of those fans are rightly outraged by this decision, and we support any course of action they take to voice their discontent over this decision.

“Our support for our ownership group has been unwavering until now, but this we cannot support. We reject out of hand any suggestion that NYCFC is in any way secondary to Manchester City FC, regardless of the source, and are disappointed that City Football Group would give such an appearance.

“The Third Rail will forever act as a voice for the fans of New York City Football Club.”

Former New England Revolution coach Steve Nicol also decried the deal in an interview with ESPN, claiming the deal was a “disaster” for MLS due to the message it will send to fans vis-a-vis the integrity/credibility of the league.

“Disaster, absolute disaster,” Nicol said. “It’s a disaster for that new franchise, a disaster for MLS.

“I can’t wait to hear from (MLS commissioner) Don Garber.”

For what it’s worth, Garber’s deputy commissioner, Mark Abbott, issued a short statement on the MLS website to assuage any lingering doubts:

“Frank Lampard’s performance at Manchester City reaffirms that he is one of the world’s elite midfielders and we look forward to him joining NYCFC during the 2015 season.”

So there you go. Everything’s fine.

We know fan culture is a little different in the US, but it baffles us that anybody could feel so passionately about a football club that hasn’t played a single game, currently has a grand total of 15 senior players on their books and, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t really exist properly yet.

Posted in Man City, MLS, Newsnow, Transfers & Rumours

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10 Comments

  1. JuanosDios says:

    It’s not the passion for their club, it’s the passion for their money that’s driving the outrage. Supporters groups should speak out when their members are getting screwed over by the club as is the case here. So they’re in mid season form even if their club isn’t. I’m no expert on the fair play rules, but this signing with New York and getting loaned to Man City for a season thing seems fishy.

  2. Chris says:

    Those poor hard done too NYCFC ‘fans’.

  3. Vinnie says:

    Wow, do these “fans” know who are exactly paying the bills, for all intents and purposes the abu dhabi united group can take a sh*t in the middle of the NYCFC training ground they OWN it!!! youve got david villa for crying out loud, pretty sure an epl title means a bit more to frank then an mls payday.

  4. EDub says:

    Where’s the outrage about playing in a damn baseball stadium???

  5. Fnarf says:

    I think you’re missing the point. It’s not that it’s weird to be passionate about a club that hasn’t played a game yet. It’s that the club NEEDS those fans to be passionate. They have to create a fandom from scratch, and they’re going about it in the worst imaginable way. Any sensible fan would take this slap in the face and say, “you know what, screw you. I’m not interested, I’ve got better things to do than put up with this crap”. And then where is NYCFC?

    Between that and the stadium fiasco I think NYCFC is riding the train to Chivasville. Disbanded by 2020, maybe?

  6. squiggle says:

    Good for them, mostly. I’m sure a few reactions are a little too melodramatic but better that than thinking that they’re just proles who aren’t worth a damn, who should take whatever the lords of commerce dish out.

    It’s perfectly understandable that Lampard wants to stay in a bigger championship, but by making that choice he’s damaging the championship he said he was going to compete in (more so than if he’d never never said he was going to go there in the first place). So it’s also perfectly understandable if Americans fans tell him to sod off when he finally decides to turn up in New York.

  7. DynamoChelsea says:

    He signed with NYCFC, not MCFC, I don’t care who owns the team. His loan was to give MC some bench depth in Cup matches and to keep him fit until he went to NYC. Then MC gets hit with a load of injuries and all of a sudden Lampard is “indispensable”. MCFC pulled a fast one on MLS, and while it may seem odd to folks across the pond, there are in fact passionate fans for football here, even for teams who haven’t played yet. Oh, and could my fellow Yanks stop with the stupid Chivas comparisons? Even with this BS with City, NYCFC is not now nor will they be another Chivas USA.

  8. Terry Shedingham says:

    Just what I’d expect from nouveau riche twats like Manchester City.

  9. mario says:

    sorry whats the problem here? city has 80% ownership do they not? without them nycfc would not even exist

  10. pax says:

    Moaning cunts they’ll put off more stars going to the mls .

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