Frank Lampard Lifts Manchester City As Fans in New York Fume

Frank Lampard came off the bench to score the winning goal in Manchester City's 3-2 victory over Sunderland on Thursday. The goal highlighted Lampard's value to City, which moved into a tie for the Premier League lead when Chelsea lost to Tottenham later in the day, but it also exposed a deep wedge between Lampard and fans who had expected to see him play in New York this year. (Also read: Lampard faces cloudy future)

The goal came in Lampard's first game since Manchester City announced in a one-sentence statement late Wednesday that he would remain with the club through the end of the Premier League season in May. That decision means that he will not join New York City FC for the start of its inaugural season in Major League Soccer in March.

New York City FC unveiled Lampard as its marquee player in July, and the team has featured him prominently in its kickoff campaign. It heralds his accomplishments for City regularly on its Twitter feed, and has used his name and image to sell shirts, sponsorships and, most important, more than 11,000 season tickets.

The news that he will stay in Manchester through May, rumored for weeks, infuriated New York City FC fans and caused a public break between the team and its most prominent supporters group, the Third Rail. The group released a statement late Wednesday to "publicly denounce" the decisions of Manchester City and Lampard.

"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," the statement read. "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."

The team has said little about the move officially, merely confirming it in a short article posted on the team's website. Even its tweet noting his goal on Wednesday, his seventh for City this season, seemed sheepish; it came more than an hour after he scored, and was greeted immediately with invective from fans who have long feared that Manchester City, despite its multimillion-dollar investment in MLS and New York City FC, considered the league and its team merely an afterthought to its business in Europe.

Lampard's decision to stay in England also confirmed that he was never technically an MLS player, even after New York City FC's news release announcing his signing said Lampard "had signed a two-year contract which starts August 1st."

But Lampard's salary did not appear in a list distributed by the MLS players union this fall - in Major League Soccer, the league owns all player contracts - even though several of his teammates' did. And in announcing that Lampard would stay through the end of the Premier League season, Manchester City said that it had "extended" his deal.

Lampard's official arrival date in New York remains unclear. His contract extension is believed to include a clause that would allow Lampard, at Manchester City's discretion, to join New York City FC at an earlier date, but that might not be good news in Manchester. He most likely would not become expendable to City unless the club no longer had a chance to win the Premier League or the UEFA Champions League.Frank Lampard came off the bench to score the winning goal in Manchester City's 3-2 victory over Sunderland on Thursday. The goal highlighted Lampard's value to City, which moved into a tie for the Premier League lead when Chelsea lost to Tottenham later in the day, but it also exposed a deep wedge between Lampard and fans who had expected to see him play in New York this year.

The goal came in Lampard's first game since Manchester City announced in a one-sentence statement late Wednesday that he would remain with the club through the end of the Premier League season in May. That decision means that he will not join New York City FC for the start of its inaugural season in Major League Soccer in March.

New York City FC unveiled Lampard as its marquee player in July, and the team has featured him prominently in its kickoff campaign. It heralds his accomplishments for City regularly on its Twitter feed, and has used his name and image to sell shirts, sponsorships and, most important, more than 11,000 season tickets.

The news that he will stay in Manchester through May, rumored for weeks, infuriated New York City FC fans and caused a public break between the team and its most prominent supporters group, the Third Rail. The group released a statement late Wednesday to "publicly denounce" the decisions of Manchester City and Lampard.

"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," the statement read. "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."

The team has said little about the move officially, merely confirming it in a short article posted on the team's website. Even its tweet noting his goal on Wednesday, his seventh for City this season, seemed sheepish; it came more than an hour after he scored, and was greeted immediately with invective from fans who have long feared that Manchester City, despite its multimillion-dollar investment in MLS and New York City FC, considered the league and its team merely an afterthought to its business in Europe.

Lampard's decision to stay in England also confirmed that he was never technically an MLS player, even after New York City FC's news release announcing his signing said Lampard "had signed a two-year contract which starts August 1st."

But Lampard's salary did not appear in a list distributed by the MLS players union this fall - in Major League Soccer, the league owns all player contracts - even though several of his teammates' did. And in announcing that Lampard would stay through the end of the Premier League season, Manchester City said that it had "extended" his deal.

Lampard's official arrival date in New York remains unclear. His contract extension is believed to include a clause that would allow Lampard, at Manchester City's discretion, to join New York City FC at an earlier date, but that might not be good news in Manchester. He most likely would not become expendable to City unless the club no longer had a chance to win the Premier League or the UEFA Champions League.

© The New York Times 2015