From 'Yellow Submarine' to 'Empty seats at home': how Man City fans turned scandal into song
Manchester City fans do not mock their rivals' misfortune — they mock their own. As the club's financial reckoning arrives, supporters are dusting off a songbook built on self-deprecation, a tradition the club's own fans describe as "schadenfreude starts at home".
The prophetic chant
The anthem of the moment dates back to 2008, when fans began singing "City's going down with a billion in the bank" to the tune of Yellow Submarine. The song was born of crisis: Thaksin Shinawatra's 15-month ownership had ended abruptly when more than £1bn of the former Thai president's assets were frozen, and even after Sheikh Mansour of the UAE stepped in, City found themselves in the relegation zone by December.
Yet the club went on to win "trophy after trophy" — and fans kept singing anyway. When the financial fair play investigation was launched in 2018, the chant got louder. When more than 100 charges emerged in 2023, it became "even louder and more cavalier". Now, with punishment looming, one lifelong supporter predicts "the chanting will be louder and more cavalier than ever".
Cityitis
Fans have a shorthand for the phenomenon: Cityitis — "our tendency to self-destruct when things appear to be going well". The explanation, according to the fan columnist, is neither tempting fate nor hubristic irony: "It's simply an acceptance that one way or another we'll always be City, always suffer from Cityitis, and come the day, despite our endless UAE riches, we'll do a City. And that day has come."
'Empty seats at home' and 'Is This the Etihad?'
The self-mocking repertoire goes further. There is "Empty seats at home", sung to the tune of the Beautiful South's Rotterdam, ribbing the club's inability to sell out tickets despite years of dominance. There is "Is This the Etihad?" — set to Verdi's La donna è mobile — aimed at deathly quiet away grounds.
"It's not about tempting fate. Nor is it hubristic irony — we can't sell out despite winning all these trophies," the fan explains. "We brag about our failings."
A tradition born of hardship
The gallows humour runs deep in the club's DNA. Founded in 1880 as St Mark's (West Gorton) by members of a Church of England parish for humanitarian and social rescue purposes in deprived east Manchester, City's history is littered with falls from grace that fans remember fondly: the Kevin Keegan era immortalised in "We've got Kevin Keegan 100 goals a season", and the legendary playoff win over Gillingham — "our top footballing memory" for fans of a certain age.
Whether the club now faces a points deduction, stripped trophies or a slide down the divisions, the songbook stands ready. "The only way is up," as the song goes — and City's fans have been singing about going down for 15 years.