Pep Guardiola believes many of Manchester City’s rivals are hoping the Premier League champions will be sanctioned over allegations of financial doping. The hearing into City’s 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules is scheduled to begin on Monday. And Guardiola – who said he was looking forward to the case finally being resolved – is of the view that many rival Premier League clubs want to see City punished.
“I know what people are looking for, I know what they are expecting – I know it because I have read it for many years – but I’ve said everyone is innocent until guilt is proven.
“So we will see. It starts soon and hopefully finishes soon. An independent panel will decide. I’m looking forward to the decision.”
“I have spoken with many Premier League clubs and most of them understand that City should be sanctioned,” Tebas told Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo.
Tebas has been a vocal critic of City and Guardiola has seldom seen eye to eye with the Spaniard. But in terms of City’s rivals reputedly wanting to see the club punished, Guardiola said he was in rare agreement with Tebas.
“That’s why I say to Mr Tebas and the Premier League teams - wait for the independent panel. Justice is there in a modern democracy so yeah, wait for the decision, it’s not more complicated than that.
“But I don’t know if he is a lawyer or the rest of the Premier League teams are lawyers so what I ask for is that – wait, it happened with Uefa. We believe that we have not done anything wrong so we go to an independent panel and we are going to wait.”
Guardiola said the landmark case was not a topic of discussion in the City dressing room. “No, we are not lawyers,” he said. “Erling [Haaland] is not a lawyer so we didn’t talk about it.
“What is going to happen is with the independent panel and we will accept the sentence. I’m not a lawyer. There are many lawyers in this country and in Spain, but I wait. We’re going to wait and see.”
City were charged in February with multiple alleged breaches of league rules between 2009 and 2023 which, if proven, could result in sanctions ranging from warnings, fines and points deductions to expulsion from the League.
The hearing is scheduled to last for around 10 weeks with hope of a verdict being delivered early next year.
The charges include not providing accurate financial information for nine separate seasons, not providing full details of Roberto Mancini’s pay over the four seasons he was manager at the club from 2009 to 2013 and not providing full details of players’ remuneration – including that of former midfielder Yaya Toure – over six seasons from 2010-11 to 2015-16.
City have also been charged with not co-operating with an investigation and not handing over documents as required over five seasons from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
Guardiola Criticizes ‘Useless’ Meetings Over Fixture Congestion
Pep Guardiola has hit out at Man City’s latest fixture pile-up – and accused the authorities of ignoring the concerns of players and managers.
City are already feeling the impact of Uefa’s decision to expand the Champions League and Europa League this season as the Spaniard’s side face the prospect of four games in 10 days.
The Premier League champions face Watford at the Etihad Stadium in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday week - only 49 hours after hosting title rivals Arsenal.
They must then travel to Newcastle to play Eddie Howe’s side at St James’ Park on the following Saturday lunchtime before travelling to Slovakia to face Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League three days later.
“It’s going to happen more and more,” Guardiola said. “It’s impossible to fix all the schedules and calendars. People say with players and managers with the money they shouldn’t complain but it’s not, it’s about the health.
“Doctors especially say the bodies have to recover for four or five days. We will do our job anyway – with this salary or less salary – because we love to do it, but we play Arsenal on the Sunday and it’s not an easy game and two days later we have to do it [against Watford].
“I’m not a specialist on the calendars or fixtures and the competitions. We’re not going to change – the meetings [with the authorities] are useless.
“If they decide they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it. We will do it on Tuesday; hopefully, we can select two teams [for Arsenal and Watford] and be fit and have no injuries but everyone knows the schedule will be tight this season.”
City were given the option of playing Watford at home on Tuesday or away in London on Wednesday or Thursday and elected for Tuesday at the Etihad to give them more time to recover for the Newcastle game – even though that meant a rapid turnaround from the Arsenal match.
Guardiola expects such problems to become more frequent now Uefa have increased the number of Champions League matches, and anticipates the new Fifa Club World Cup at the end of the season will create even more headaches.
“It’s going to happen in many cases, it’s going to happen many times for teams that play in all competitions,” said Guardiola, whose side face Brentford at home on Saturday before Inter Milan visit the Etihad next Wednesday.
“They gave an alternative, to play on Thursday away in London to have more days but then we had a Saturday game in Newcastle and we prioritise of course to have more rest for Newcastle.
“So we’re going to play on Tuesday because we could not play on Wednesday when it should be because United play in the Europa League and the police won’t accept it.
“It’s going to happen many times. When someone [Fifa] creates a new competition [the Club World Cup], it’s going to be even worse.
“I prefer to play at home [against Watford on Tuesday] than go on Thursday to London and my fans to watch this lovely, adorable team at home. That’s why I decided to play on Tuesday. Because on Thursday we wouldn’t have time to recover to go to Newcastle.”
Haaland's Personal Loss
Guardiola said he would make a decision on Erling Haaland’s availability against Brentford on Saturday morning after the death of close friend Ivar Eggja, who was the best man at his father Alfie’s wedding and had become a confidant of the Norway striker.
“It was a tough moment for him and his family, it was sad news, it’s a person close to him and his family,” Guardiola said. “Our thoughts are with him and all his family. It’s sad and we will see tomorrow if he is able mentally and physically to play.”
Guardiola said he expects to be without Nathan Ake until the next international break after the City defender was forced off during the Netherlands’ game against Germany this week with a hamstring injury.
