LONDON: Pep Guardiola says he would stay at Manchester City even if the club are found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules and relegated to third-tier League One as a punishment.
City’s fate has been brought back into sharp focus following Everton’s 10-point deduction last week, which plunged them into the relegation zone.
The Toffees were docked 10 points for breaking rules over a three-year period, while City are awaiting a ruling after being charged in February with 115 breaches of financial rules. The club denies all the charges.
City were banned for two years from UEFA competitions in February 2020 by European football’s governing body for “serious financial fair play breaches”, but the sanction was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport later that year.
Guardiola was asked on Friday whether any potential punishment would make him consider his position but he pledged his loyalty in the champions.
“I will answer when I have the sentence,“ he said. “You are questioning like we have been punished. And in the moment we are innocent until guilt is proven. I know the people want it. I know, I feel it. I will wait.
“Wait and see and after the sentence has been done we will come here and explain it. But absolutely I will not consider my future (if) it depends (on) being here or being in League One. Absolutely.
“There is more chance to stay if we are in League One than if we were in the Champions League.”
Guardiola, whose team host Liverpool on Saturday, hinted that plenty of people in the football world would like to see City harshly punished.
“When you read (what is said) then we should be relegated, relegated, relegated, yeah, of course, but nobody knows exactly,“ he said.
“All the people who say that didn’t read the statements, don’t know exactly what happened — not even myself. I didn’t read all the breaches, I didn’t read our defence.
“But wait. What I said a month ago — OK, if we’ve done something wrong we’ll be punished. But wait — we can defend ourselves can’t we?”
The City boss insisted City’s case was “completely different” from the one involving Everton.
“I want to say the case for Everton, and I don’t know what happened, but only I know from the lawyers and people at my club… is that they are completely different cases,“ he said. “That’s why you cannot compare because every case is completely different.” – AFP
