TheAlpha
Pep Guardiola has publicly backed Manchester City after an independent commission found the club guilty of every charge of breaching Premier League financial rules across a nine-year period.
In a social media post, he said he is standing with the club, its owner, chairman, chief executive Ferran Soriano, the players, staff, new manager Enzo Maresca and the supporters, and promised that everyone would get through the situation together. City insist they are innocent and plan to appeal before Friday’s deadline.
Guardiola left the manager’s job in the summer after ten years and twenty trophies. His first two seasons fall within the period examined by the commission. He is a longtime associate of Soriano, who first hired him at Barcelona and later brought him to England.
Guardiola was regularly asked about the case during his tenure, which began with charges being filed in February 2023, and he repeatedly said he believed the assurances he received from the Abu Dhabi owners. He now serves as a global ambassador for City Football Group, offering technical guidance to its clubs and working on particular projects.
Elsewhere, former City chairman David Bernstein (in the post from 1998 to 2003) called the situation “beyond awful” and argued the board should resign. He said that if City were a public company, its directors, the long-serving chief executive included, would have to step aside or be suspended while the matter played out, and that he doubted current leadership could credibly stay on.
Meanwhile, City Women’s head coach Andrée Jeglertz said it was business as usual ahead of Thursday’s Women’s Champions League match at home to Real Madrid. He said he supported the club, adding that this is what he was hired to do, but declined to say whether he had been given assurances that the women’s team would be unaffected. He stressed that his side, last season’s WSL champions, were concentrating only on football.
Thewolf
Bangerboy
Badboy
Empiresam