Pep Guardiola claims Man City have already been ‘sentenced’ in passionate defence after financial allegations

Pep Guardiola launched an impassioned defence of Manchester City on Friday, following the financial allegations made against the club earlier this week.

The Premier League alleged City breached 115 rules and an independent committee will now be formed to determine the club’s guilt or innocence. City responded on Monday to say they were ‘surprised’ by the allegations and said they ‘welcome the review’.

But Friday’s press conference was the first time anyone from the club has publicly spoken about the matter, with Guardiola claiming the Premier League champions have already been ‘condemned’ and ‘sentenced’. The City manager also said the driving force behind the Premier League allegations was the other 19 clubs pushing for City to be punished.

“My first thought is that we are already being condemned,” said an assertive Guardiola. “What has happened this week after Monday is the same as what happened with Uefa [in 2020]. With Uefa we were condemned. We had already accusations, now we have just charges.

“Why should in that situation, when they told me before they defend the accusation from Uefa, the club proved we were completely innocent, why should we not think right now when we are being condemned from charges and suggestions?

“You have to understand that between 19 teams of the Premier League is accusing us without the latest opportunity to defend and the words of my chairman, my CEO, my people explain everything during these three or four years, you know exactly on what side I am.

“Another side I would say we are lucky we live in a marvellous country where we have a society where everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We didn’t have this opportunity. We are already sentenced and tough. What is going to happen I don’t know.

“Personally, I am happy we are here. Like Uefa, it happen, we have the chance to defend. I think we have good lawyers, but we can’t say Uefa had bad lawyers. I think the Premier League, supported by 19 teams to put it out for the Premier League, will have good lawyers too to defend their position like we’re going to defend our position. I would have loved to wait and see and time will dictate what’s going to happen.

“Just in case we are not innocent we will accept what the judge in the Premier League decides, but what happens if in the same situation that Uefa happened we are innocent, what happens to restore or pay back our damage?

“Because the damage is now for one decade. One week later, Uefa make a statement against us, nine teams - Burnley, Wolves, Leicester, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Chelsea - [write a letter wanting us] out of the Champions League, that they wanted that position.

“Like Julius Caesar, they are not in this world, they are not enemies or friends, just interests. They wanted to put it out to take that position that we won on the pitch, take it in our position. Now it is not different in that moment, absolutely zero.

“The same articles, the same accusations, the same everything. We have to be out of the Champions League, now we have to go to League Two or maybe the Conference. We are not a team with a long history or titles, we have been in the lower divisions and we will be back there.

“It's not a problem just in case. We'll get Paul Dickov and Mike Summerbee and we will do a good process and will be back I’m pretty sure. But they should wait because at the end, the Premier League decide we're going to defend ourselves as we did in the Uefa situation. “