Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp responds to Man City criticism after ‘borderline xenophobic’ claim

The Liverpool manager said he had no intention of insulting anyone.
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has responded to Manchester City’s ‘borderline xenophobic’ claim following his comments about the club last week.

Klopp stated there was ‘no ceiling’ for state-funded clubs like City, Newcastle United and Paris Saint-Germain ahead of last Sunday’s meeting with Pep Guardiola’s side at Anfield. “There are three clubs in world football who can do what they want financially. It’s legal and everything, fine, but they can do what they want,” he said.

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But that was met with a furious backlash from City, who, as per The Times, felt the comments were ‘borderline xenophobic’. This followed a bad-tempered game on Sunday where there were several on-field altercations, Klopp was sent off and Guardiola was caught on camera gesticulating to the Anfield crowd during the match.

The City boss also had coins thrown in his direction and the visitors’ bus was hit by missiles after the game, while chants and graffiti mocking the Hillsborough Disaster came from the City end on Sunday.

But speaking on Tuesday ahead of Liverpool’s upcoming clash with West Ham United, Klopp said he had no intention of fanning the flames and that his aim was not to ‘blame anyone’. “It’s not the first time [people] have misunderstood [me],” explained the German. “I know what I thought when I said it. If someone misunderstands that, I cannot help that.

Sunday’s game was an ill-tempered affair. Credit: Getty.Sunday’s game was an ill-tempered affair. Credit: Getty.
Sunday’s game was an ill-tempered affair. Credit: Getty.

“I have to be careful, I’ve known that for years, but I’m not always careful, I realise as well. From time to time I just answer and say what I think.

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“I will try to do that in the future as well because usually it’s never my aim to blame anyone or whatever, I just talk about things which I think aren’t that important in life, actually. I say what I know about it or how I see it. That’s it, I cannot change that. Nothing of the things that were made of it were my intention.”