‘Respect the procedure’ - Pep Guardiola fires back at Aleksander Ceferin’s Man City claims

Pep Guardiola has fired back at Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin after he claimed this week that European football’s governing body were right to ban Manchester City from the Champions League in 2020.

Uefa punished City for alleged serious Financial Fair Play breaches and for providing misleading information. However, the club have always denied any wrongdoing and Uefa's ruling was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after it was determined the alleged breaches were either ‘not established or time-barred’.

But Ceferin said in a surprise interview that he still feels Uefa were right to charge City, despite CAS' decision.

“We know we were right. We wouldn’t decide if we didn’t think we were right,” the 56-year-old told the Telegraph.

“As a trial lawyer for 25 years, I know that, sometimes, you win a case that you are sure you will lose,” Ceferin added. “And, sometimes, you lose a case when you’re sure… You just simply have to respect in a serious democracy the decision of the court.”

A clearly irked Guardiola responded to those inflammatory comments on Thursday and said Ceferin should ‘respect the procedure’.

“As a lawyer that he is, the president of Uefa, he should wait and after do whatever he wants,” the City boss said ahead of the club’s FA Cup encounter against Tottenham Hotspur.

“The sentence from Uefa he has to respect it and he has to wait. He has a lot of jobs to do at Uefa, to be involved in the case with lawyers, he should respect the procedure and understand we have the right to defend ourselves.”

The news comes amid City's other ongoing investigate from the Premier League, who have brought 115 charges against the champions, allegations which City strenuously deny. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters last week claimed a date has been set to determine the case but did not reveal when that will be.