Premier League rivals want to see us punished — Guardiola

Manager Pep Guardiola says Manchester City’s Premier League rivals want to see the club punished for alleged breaches of the top flight’s financial rules.

Guardiola stated that he is glad the hearing into City’s 115 charges will begin on Monday.

City were charged and referred to an independent commission in February 2023 following a four-year investigation.

It is alleged City breached the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018.

City strongly deny all charges and have said their case is supported by a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”.

Javier Tebas, president of Spain’s La Liga, is a long-time critic of City, owned by the Abu Dhabi-backed City Football Group and has repeatedly accused the them – together with Qatar-backed PSG – of being a state club and of “financial doping”.

Tebas said he has spoken to many Premier League clubs and believes they want to see the current champions punished.

“I have spoken with many Premier League clubs and most of them understand that City should be sanctioned,” he was quoted as saying by Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo.

Responding to these comments on Friday, former Barcelona boss Guardiola said: “For the first time I agree with Tebas.

“All the Premier League teams want us to be sanctioned, that is for sure. But 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. It’s not more complicated than that.

“I don’t know if he is a lawyer or the rest of the Premier League teams are lawyers, so I ask for that. It happened with UEFA.

“We believe we have not done anything wrong.”

Billed as sport’s ‘trial of the century’, it is expected to run for 10 weeks – with a verdict likely in early 2025.

The Premier League has also accused the reigning champions of not co-operating with its investigation.

When the Premier League investigation began, City said the allegations were “entirely false” and that allegations originally published in German newspaper Der Spiegel came from “illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails”.

If found guilty of the most serious charges, City could be hit with a points deduction serious enough to condemn them to relegation – or even expulsion – from the Premier League.

City have won eight league titles, multiple cups and the Champions League since their 2008 Abu Dhabi takeover.

“It starts soon and hopefully finishes soon. An independent panel will decide and I am looking forward to the decision.

“I’m happy it’s starting on Monday. I know there will be more rumours, new specialists about the sentences. We’re going to see. I know what people are looking forward to, what they expect, I know, what I read for many, many years.

“Everybody is innocent until guilt is proven. So we’ll see,” Guardiola said.

What are the 115 charges?

• 54x Failure to provide accurate financial information 2009-10 to 2017-18.

• 14x Failure to provide accurate details for player and manager payments from 2009-10 to 2017-18.

• 5x Failure to comply with Uefa’s rules including Financial Fair Play (FFP) 2013-14 to 2017-18.

• 7x Breaching Premier League’s PSR rules 2015-16 to 2017-18.

• 35x Failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations December 2018 – February 2023.

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