“Innocent” City is already “convicted”

Coach star Pep Guardiola sees Manchester City as victims of a campaign in the renewed whirl over possible violations of the financial rules of the Premier League.

He was “completely convinced of our innocence,” emphasized the 52-year-old, adding: “We will defend ourselves.” City have “a good lawyer” and the Premier League will also “need good lawyers”.

“We are fortunate to live in a wonderful country where everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We didn’t have that opportunity, we are already sentenced,” said the English champions’ team manager on Friday.

The league accuses Manchester of violations in over 100 cases. The Premier League did not provide any information about the possible penalty.

The league has “created a precedent”, said Guardiola, and must be “careful” in the future. After all, other clubs accused of similar offenses are not as innocent as City. He even believes La Liga rival clubs would help move against City, the Catalan said.

Should City be found guilty, the club will accept this, Guardiola emphasized, and if necessary go to the 5th division. “We’ll come back, no problem.” He will “call up the rise heroes Paul Dickov and Mike Summerbee and do it again”.

But it’s not that far, City have also prevailed against UEFA. The European Football Union’s guilty verdict in a similar matter had been overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS.

Guardiola said he had not spoken to his team around Captain Ilkay Gündogan about the explosive topic. It was also “impossible” to take away all the memories of the many successes from him and the players.