Joey Barton is outspoken but what Rangers need right now are players

IOC president Thomas Bach hid from call of duty instead of going to Rio

Slaven Bilic's West Ham team have it all to prove again this season

Fans have the right to protest - and to boo UEFA, because they deserve it

City have worked their way up only to see UEFA benefit the establishment

Pep Guardiola is doing a wonderful job at Manchester City. Eight matches, eight wins, breaking a record that stretched back to the days when opponents included Gainsborough Trinity, Woolwich Arsenal and Darwen.

He has coached Kevin De Bruyne to the form of his life, Raheem Sterling is going that way, too — and already his ideas feel like revolution, evolution and everything in between.

On the subject of UEFA, however, he would do well to mind his own. This is the City fans' specialist subject and he cannot begin to understand how his supporters feel about Europe's governing body.

Pep Guardiola has told Manchester City fans to forget the past when it comes to UEFA

Of course Guardiola is mystified that the Champions League anthem is booed at the Etihad Stadium. He has lived happily on the right side of the tracks throughout his magnificent career.

As manager of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, his has been a life of UEFA-crafted privilege. They have never been anything other than lovely to him.

Not just on a personal level, either. Guardiola might not actually realise his life has changed now he is with Manchester City, because he remains feted wherever he goes. For UEFA, he will always be the man that thrust Lionel Messi into their world, and gave the Champions League some of its greatest nights and feats.

They adore him, and understandably so. And he loves them back. Why wouldn't he?

They extinguish competition, their wealth helps create one-team leagues, they levy £50million fines on rival upstarts — and if all that doesn't work, they rewrite the co-efficient calculations and adjust the financial share of the market pool to ensure the giants of European football seize a greater share of the revenue generated by English clubs.

Guardiola has only worked at clubs that are in league with UEFA, that work hand in glove to preserve their status in the closed shop of the European elite.

So before telling City's fans to forget the past, he might want to get a glimpse of his future. It is all there, in UEFA's new co-efficient table.

Bayern Munich were ranked second in Europe with 163.035 points, and stay there — but now with 189. Barcelona were ranked third with 159.143 points, and stay there — but with 188. Manchester City had 99.257 points — and now have 84. They fall five places to 16th. And this means more chance of a tougher draw — and less money.

Fans have booed the Champions League anthem after a series of issues in the competition

City have worked their way in from Europe's wilderness: 64th in 2010, 42nd in 2011, 22nd in 2013, 17th in 2015, only to be bumped down the co-efficient table in what they believed to be a breakthrough European season.

That is how UEFA works for the clubs outside the gilded elite. That is why Manchester City's fans protest, and why Guardiola cannot understand.

'They must forget what happened in the past,' Guardiola advised, but the same could be said of him. Forget his past and familiarise himself with some recent history. Talk to more supporters, or to people around the club who have lived through the many hypocrisies, inconsistencies and injustices and would cheerfully boo from the posh seats, if only protocol and their employment contracts would allow.

Talk to them about getting fined £25,000 for coming out less than a minute late, in the same year that Porto were fined £17,000 for fans racially abusing Manchester City players. Talk about who got the money from their £49m financial fair play fine (here's a clue, Pep — you used to manage two of them).

Talk about how CSKA Moscow got hundreds of fans into a match due to be played behind closed doors when City's fans — who had done nothing wrong — were excluded. UEFA would even have charged City for booing the Champions League anthem, had news of their intention not made them appear even more petty and ridiculous.

Guardiola has only worked at clubs that are in league with UEFA, such as Barcelona

Guardiola has no frame of reference for any of this resentment. Neither do the clubs he has managed. The year before he arrived, Bayern Munich played a Champions League final at home. Barcelona are considered to have their feet so firmly under the top table that opposition fans in Spain sneeringly refer to them as Uefalona.

Claims of official bias or referees under instruction to ensure their progress are nonsense, of course — but hardly surprising when so much of UEFA's work benefits only the establishment.

And yes, it is unhelpful that Manchester City's fans do not embrace Europe, and that the ground often does not sell out on Champions League nights. Seeing the joy the travelling Leicester fans got from last week's visit to Bruges shows how positive the tournament can be for new arrivals.

Some City fans feel the same way, too — but that does not alter the rights of others to protest, as long as they then move on.

So cheer the team, get behind the players, wring every last drop of enjoyment from a Guardiola side who have, so far, exceeded even the most ambitious expectations. But boo UEFA; because they deserve it.

You never know, the more Guardiola discovers what it is like to be outside their inner circle, he may even feel inclined to join in one day.

Guardiola has got his Manchester City side playing brilliantly so far in the Premier League

'Everything you did last season, you won't get a thing for it this season, not even a throw-in,' said West Ham manager Slaven Bilic before the new Premier League campaign began. Weren't his players listening?

Duelling rabonas against Watford, three goals down before half-time at West Brom; every man around the opposition box when caught on the break for the fourth.

Who do they think they are? What was so special about finishing seventh? They've got it all to prove this season — and need to start playing like it.

West Ham have it all to prove this season having been beaten by Watford and West Brom

Super Mac had scent for goal

One of my first jobs at Reg Hayters' sports agency off Fleet Street was to ghost-write a book with Malcolm Macdonald called simply, How To Score Goals. I spent several weeks as a guest at his house, and it was good to see in his interview with the Mail last week that he remains as sharp on the subject as ever.

Few strikers were as dedicated as Malcolm. He kept notes on every opponent to further his advantage.

A favourite concerned Phil Thompson, the Liverpool centre half. Malcolm discovered on an England trip that he had an aversion to garlic, so would eat several cloves of it before games with Liverpool and breathe all over him. He thought it bought him three yards of space.

Can you imagine a modern striker doing that? For a start the club nutritionist would go mad.

Malcolm Macdonald showed he remains as sharp as ever in his Sportsmail interview

Bach hides from his call of duty

Walter Scheel, a former president of West Germany, died on August 24 this year, and was laid to rest at a state funeral held on September 7 in Berlin, the day of the Paralympics opening ceremony.

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, therefore sent his apologies. Marking the passing of a friend had to be his priority. Even so, as the Paralympics did not close until Sunday, this still left a full 11 days for Bach to get over to Rio de Janeiro.

Unfortunately, apologies again, he had another diary clash. September 10 in Zagreb, marking the 25th anniversary of the Croatian Olympic Committee. Bach held a morning meeting with Croatia's president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, before attending a celebration at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Yet that still left eight more days to show his face in Rio. And as a man who racked up £421,000 in expenses in the period 2014 to 2015, one does not imagine Bach is too fearful of flying.

Thomas Bach has been in hiding for much of the time he could have been in Brazil

Maybe he was more concerned about incurring the displeasure of his good friend Vladimir Putin by associating with an organisation that did the right thing over Russia's systemic drug cheats.

Maybe he was unnerved by the reception that awaited him, with another pal, Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, currently held in Brazil on suspicion of ticket touting. It now emerges that Hickey contacted Bach requiring 500 tickets for the Olympic men's football final, to be sold by the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Great Britain had no allocation and accepted that, but Hickey appears to have cited great interest among Irish visitors in the meeting between Brazil and Germany — coincidentally the hottest ticket for the entire Olympics.

Hickey had also asked for Ireland's allocation of 38 seats for the opening ceremony to be bumped up by an additional 150.

Pat Hickey, Olympic Council of Ireland president, is being held on suspicion of ticket touting

Brazilian authorities believe he had a deal going with THG, a ticket and hospitality agency run by Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans.

One would think Bach would be anxious to get to the bottom of this, to expose any hint of corruption within the Olympic movement — or at the very least would be happy to be present in person, to help police with their investigation in any way he could.

Instead, he has as good as been in hiding for much of the time when he could have been in Brazil, showing support and doing his job.

The roll call of creeps at the helm of modern sport is a long one, but it is remarkable how quickly Bach has shot to the top of that list. Where do they all come from? They must be grown on farms.

And while we're at it...

If Joey Barton played the game he talked, he would be the footballer he thinks he is. It is fine to be outspoken, to be the self-appointed speaker of truth in every dressing room he occupies, but what Rangers need right now are players.

Ones that can influence a game, change the narrative with what they do, more than what they say — and few have spoken favourably of Barton's performances in Scotland so far.

Those who have worked with him say he assumes the authority of the manager but without the responsibility or wit to maintain morale. But Rangers have got a manager, Mark Warburton, who told Barton to stay away for a week for the sake of team harmony after the 5-1 defeat by Celtic.

Joey Barton's performances for Rangers have not drawn plaudits and now they need to win

That Rangers couldn't then beat Ross County on Saturday suggests much of Barton's criticism may have been justified — but Warburton does not need a surrogate, or a challenger. He needs players who are capable of winning matches, not critiquing them.

Barton does that or there really is no place for him. Not for the first time, the performance is not worth the cost of the maintenance.

Don't let Putin pull the wool over your eyes

The Fancy Bears hack has done exactly as intended. It has muddied the waters to give the impression that other countries, most notably Great Britain and America, cheat as much as Russia do.

It's nonsense. They don't. No hack has produced evidence of samples being tampered with; of systemic doping programmes; of holes in the wall through which dirty vials disappeared and clean ones appeared.

This is all part of Vladimir Putin's hybrid war with the West. Russia now engages with hacks, with hooligans, with propaganda.

A hack has given an impression that other nations cheat as much as Vladimir Putin's Russia do

Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) are a recognised part of international sport. They are not cheating, but they are controversial because the public are so sick of drug-related corruption that any hint of a banned substance, even one ingested legitimately, makes them suspicious.

The Russian scandal in athletics and other sports has helped create a culture in which nobody is trusted. Laura Trott, a known asthmatic, takes asthma medicine — but suddenly that is made to look nefarious, not logical.

All Russia's hackers required was for one of the icons of the Olympic movement to arouse scepticism — and they have struck gold in Sir Bradley Wiggins. He said British Cycling had a 'no-needles' policy, but that turned out not to be true. Wiggins had been given a therapeutic use exemption by the International Cycling Union to receive injections of a banned drug to treat allergies before three important races.

Laura Trott takes asthma medicine but her reasons are logical as a known asthmatic

Yet we should not be confused. What he did requires explanation but it was not illegal. The use was passed by the cycling authorities, and athletes apply for TUEs all the time.

We can argue that too many are granted, or, at the very least, that their issue should be made public to protect the integrity of sport, even if the individuals' right to privacy would be compromised. But that is a separate argument.

What we cannot fall for is equivalency. The Fancy Bears hack does not put athletes such as Serena Williams, Simone Biles or Chris Froome on a par with the beneficiaries of state-sponsored doping in Russia.

We need to remind ourselves who the good guys are. It's not always us; but it's never them.

FIFA are considering moving the Ballon d'Or ceremony from their home in Zurich to more glamorous locations. The first city being considered is London.