“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” Pep Guardiola defends Manchester City after financial breach in Premier League
Pep Guardiola has opened up for the first time on the FFP debacle
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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes that his club is innocent in the recent financial fair play lawsuit. During an interview on Friday before playing Aston Villa, Pep claimed that the club will fight to defend its innocence and will not be swayed by the media trials going on across the world.
Manchester City is being tried by the Premier League for breaching as many as 115 FFP rules. These FFP rules were set up to make sure that clubs are spending from the money they earned iin revenues. The trial is expected to go on for years as both PL and City have hired groups of lawyers who are the best in the business.
On the FFP Allegations
In his first interview since the news of the lawsuit broke, Pep Guardiola, made it clear that his trust is in his employers. Pep said, “We are lucky we live in a country where everyone is innocent until proven guilty. It seems like we have been sentenced already.” The Spaniard looked equally disgusted at the media trial that the club and its supporters are facing on the internet. He added, “My first thought is we’ve already been condemned,” while talking about what is being said and written in the media. The former Barcelona coach emphasized that the club will defend its innocence in the matter.
Later in the interview, the Catalan also said reminded the viewers that this has happened before and City was exonerated. He said, “It’s not an unprecedented story, it’s the second time. We lived that before, two or three years ago.”
On staying in the club
Earlier, a previous interview with the coach started to make headlines in the immediate aftermath of the charges against the club. When Manchester City was tried by UEFA in 2020 for similar accusations. Pep had said that he will walk out of the club if the owners were caught lying to him.
He had said, “I will be out and I will not be your friend any more. I put my faith in you because I believe you 100% from day one and I defend the club because of that.” However, the coach said nothing of the same sort in the interview this time. Emphasising on his wish to stay in the club, Pep said, “I am not moving from this seat, I can assure you. I want to stay more than ever.”
On the other teams
Pep also didn’t hold back against clubs who want Manchester City to be expelled from the European competitions. Talking about who are the driving forces behind the allegations against them, Pep said, “it is the Premier League. I don’t know why. You have to ask the CEOs, Daniel Levy, these kinds of people.”
Chastizing the nine teams, Pep snarled back, “Nine teams – Burnley, Wolves, Leicester, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea – (wrote a letter wanting us) out of the Champions League, that they wanted that position.”
Other Issues
The blue side of manchester is in serious predicament as to how to relieve the pressure slowly building on the team. The team has not been in its characteristic ruthless self this season losing four, one game more than last season, already. City is trailing Arsenal by five points after 21 games, playing one more than the former.
Pep Guardiola himself has also been accused of infidelity by Spanish media. According to newly surfaced reports, Guradiola was involved with Pique’s ladylove Clara Chia Marti. Including these and the dark clouds of unsurity regarding the FFP accusations, it is going to be a difficult task for the players and the fans to play their usual swashbuckling football. Whether this compounds the problems or not, is anyone’s guess.
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Arpan Ghosh
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