The little known rule that forces Man City to rename Etihad Stadium for UEFA Champions League games

Manchester City regulars will know every inch of the Etihad Stadium - what it looks like, where the sponsors are, and the placement of each banner.

With City often progressing deep into the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup, it's not uncommon for the Etihad to host around 30 games a season - with three guaranteed in the Champions League group stage and potentially three more if they were to reach the semi-finals as they have done on the last three occasions.

However, what fans may not notice is that they are technically not attending the Etihad Stadium on European nights. Instead, they are sitting in the City of Manchester Stadium, in a throwback to the name of the ground when it was first opened in 2003.

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If fans were to get to the Etihad early on Champions League nights, they would notice the sponsor logos on the seats of the North and South stands - for Etihad and Puma - are 'erased' by covering some of the white seats used to make up the logos with blue covers. That creates a spotted effect while other logos around the inside of the stadium are covered, too.

That is because UEFA insist clubs must provide a 'clean stadium' without any advertising officially authorised by UEFA - including stadium names and main sponsors. Champions League regulations state that: "no branding of the stadium sponsor (for example, any name, logo, trademark, design elements, slogan or corporate colours) may be visible."

The only exceptions are that the stadium name may be used if necessary for safety and security reasons, such as over the tannoy, or on some printed materials like tickets. City have used the Etihad name on pendants exchanged