Rory, many thanks for your time. Let’s start with how this huge game is being viewed in the United States?
There’s an awareness that while it’s not historically the red-letter fixture in English football, it has become apparent over the past four or five years that this is the title decider.
This is the meeting of the two best teams, and with all due respect to Chelsea, the two best teams by quite a distance.
I think if you look at a lot of the coverage, especially on TV, that has shone through.
NBC have had their studio team here in Manchester from Thursday doing three days of live broadcasts from the city.
The fact City and Liverpool are so close in the table, that they meet so late in the season, means it carries a slight cup final air to it.
CITY+ | SIGN UP TO ACCESS EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
There is an awareness that, for the moment, when Liverpool play City they are the games more than any other that shape the course of the season.
Where do you think it stands right now in elite club games on a global scale?
I think in terms of the quality of domestic fixtures, it’s the best domestic fixture in the world right now. That will change in two, five 10 years as football always comes and goes.
It was 10 years ago when everyone watched Real v Barcelona as that was where you had the best players and where you saw the best football and that felt like real cutting edge.
Liverpool v City has now replaced that in terms of standards – there isn’t a better standard domestic game, so having said that it will obviously finish 0-0!
You have two of the best three teams in the world in the same league, playing each other and that doesn’t happen anywhere else.
Bayern v Borussia Dortmund is a massive occasion but there is a huge gulf between them. Real Madrid v Barcelona is the biggest club game in football, but they are both going through transitions it’s fair to say so that leaves Liverpool v City.
The two favourites for the Premier League, two of the three favourites for the Champions League... that is its selling point more than its history.
In terms of quality there is an awareness that what makes it so special is that you have the two top teams in the world going head-to-head for the title.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE OFFICIAL MAN CITY PODCAST
It doesn’t happen anywhere very often, and it’s happened in England for two of the last four years.
How does the concept of local sporting rivalry play out in the States?
I think a lot of football support is global now so most fans in the States or Asia or Africa or Europe will interact with their teams much more on social media than they do in real life just because of geography.
People understand the bragging rights thing; you understand the way it’s meant to work, that your victory is rooted in someone else’s pain and all of that is universal.
Where all of European football is a bit different to the States is that you do get these intense personal local rivalries that the geography of the States just doesn’t allow for.
You do get it a bit in college football more than anywhere - that’s where you will have proper historical localish rivalries.
But a local rivalry to them would be like a different country to us. It would be like City having a rivalry with Marseille.
Even if the distances are greater, the dynamics are the same. But you don’t see it in the NFL. Baseball does have the Red Sox v Yankees, but what can be lost is how all-consuming a rivalry can be.
If you are in the hinterland like Warrington say, you will have Liverpool fans surrounded by City fans or vice versa. It’s that cheek by jowl element.
DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL MAN CITY APP
How would you define City’s status in the States?
Success breeds support ultimately. I live in Britain, and I grew up in Leeds and 30 years ago you never saw any City shirts in Leeds. There were a depressingly large number of Manchester United shirts!
But you see a lot of City shirts now and that has been mirrored everywhere like London, and in the States there is an awareness that City are the best team in the world pretty much.
You could debate that of course, but there is a compelling case for City to be described as such.
They’ve got an iconic coach, they’ve got a clutch of iconic players who are household names and that will grow.
And I guess New York City FC is a party to that as well. If you are into soccer in the States, you will certainly be aware of Manchester City.
And I think the other thing that is important in terms of American soccer culture is that a lot is to do with European football being seen as exotic and glamorous and different.
And Pep Guardiola sums up a lot of those traits. He is the epitome of sophistication, of intelligent and tactical nous and is this visionary genius.
People buy into a story and the story of Guardiola is one that people can embrace as he is all the things that football in the States is seen as being.
Is the game continuing to grow in the States?
I think it is a bit of a false battle to be honest. I don’t know what needs to happen for people to decide that football has been accepted in the States
It looks to me from the outside that it has been accepted for ages.
They have a thriving domestic league. England might get a bit of a shock when they look at the squad list for the United States in Qatar this winter. They will realise there is a lot of talent here.
If you look at viewing figures, engagement rates, footprint on social, all those key metrics, football is accepted in the States.
From a European perspective we know that the Super Bowl is the big day for American sport, we know that baseball is their national pastime and we knew that basketball is a cultural driving force for a lot of US sports culture.
Whereas we come from a monochrome sporting culture.
I know we have cricket in the summer and rugby is popular, but if you think about the way we consume sport, it’s all football, all of the time and that will never be the case in the States as they have multiple options.
But just because the NBA is incredibly popular, it doesn’t mean football can’t be popular either. It doesn’t have to be one or other.
Yes 100 million people watch the Super Bowl but it maybe that you have 10 million watching Premier League football… that is way more than are watching in Britain, maybe because of the disparity of size, we lose sight of that.
Football is incredibly popular in the States and will continue to be.
Is this the biggest game you will cover this season?
It’s getting more attention than most games do. The Champions League final is still the really big day of our season… that’s when we do live blogs and roll out the big hitters.
For this game I will end up doing three or four pieces all told which is certainly more than any other domestic game and probably as much as I’ll do on the Champions League final.
We are in a different position to the British papers, partly as its just me and partly because American sports seasons last so long… I mean the baseball season goes on for 166 matches!
Also, the American mindset about matches that take part early in the season is very different to that here.
For the Anfield league game with City, the mindset was like ‘It’s really important, but it’s October.’ But if you read the British papers at the time for some it was like ‘City have blown the title!’ That was the narrative.
It was a 2-2 draw and City were the better team and everything was pretty much the same afterwards as before so we try to step away from that until it really does matter.
It’s a way of indicating that this is one that really matters. There is no question that the stakes are incredibly high for this one and the circumstances are perfect.
It’s the sort of occasion that is going to be compelling for readers.
Two of the three best teams in the world, a point between them, a Sunday afternoon kick-off… it’s perfect.
How excited are you at the prospect of this game?
It does feel like the whole season has been building towards this.
In December or January, you maybe dialled down on it a bit but since Liverpool have come again, it feels like the season has been building to this, though when the stakes are so high traditionally it doesn’t make for a great game.
But we know the way that Pep Guardiola will approach it. He won’t compromise his principles for anyone. Whatever Pep does it won’t be to make City more cautious.
City are always recognisably City, so you get this team that plays beautiful, mesmeric football and Liverpool are the same every time. You know what you are getting with them and that should be a really compelling mix.
These are the two coaches who, for the past 10 years, their meetings have defined where football goes almost.
I remember being in Dortmund for a Klassiker which Bayern won 3-0 but won by not playing Guardiola football and that was the start of Pep thinking ‘How do I get round the press?’
It’s not what will be focused on the day as that will be who wins, but there is a really interesting aspect in that this is the cutting edge of football and what they (the managers) do is really important for the rest of the game.
But for significance both short and long term, it’s enormous.
The opinions published here are personal to the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Manchester City Football Club.
