CITY FOOTBALL ACADEMY, MANCHESTER — Pep Guardiola believes many of Manchester City’s Premier League counterparts want to see their reigning champions punished as their long-awaited case over multiple alleged rules violations prepares to go to trial.
City and the Premier League will begin presenting their arguments to an independent panel on Monday 16 September. The arbitration hearing will conclude the now infamous “115 counts” – a closer look at City’s criminal record reveals 130 – that the Premier League brought against the club in February 2023. A verdict is expected in early 2025.
The charges include allegations that City disguised ownership funds as sponsorship revenue. If the club is found guilty of the most serious charges, a range of sanctions ranging from points deductions to City’s expulsion from the league are theoretically possible.
La Liga president Javier Tebas has been a regular and outspoken critic of City’s ownership model since Sheikh Mansour, the vice president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, took control of the Manchester club in 2009. On Thursday, as quoted by World of sportTebas said: “I have spoken to many Premier League clubs and most of them understand that City should be punished.”
The manager’s blunt interventions have usually been to Guardiola’s chagrin, but he saw the funny side of agreeing with his old foe on this occasion.
“Maybe he’s right and every Premier League team wants this. I agree with Tebas for the first time, and maybe for the last,” Guardiola said.
“That’s why I say to Mr Tebas and the Premier League teams: wait for the decision of the independent panel. Justice exists in a modern democracy, so wait for the decision, it’s not more complicated than that.
“I don’t know if he’s a lawyer or if the other Premier League teams are, but we’ve had this problem with UEFA on a number of occasions. We go to an independent panel and we wait.”
Premier League and UEFA Cases at Manchester City Explained
The case against City stems from documents published by whistleblower Football Leaks, which formed the basis of a 2018 series of articles in German publication Der Spiegel.
UEFA ruled that City had breached its rules and banned the ten-time English champions from its competitions for two seasons in 2020. City successfully appealed the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, although they were still fined €10m for failing to cooperate with UEFA’s investigation.
Tebas added that City had been “acquitted by CAS on a formal issue”, apparently referring to the statute of limitations provided for in UEFA’s own regulations. This is partly true, as the complaints against City’s sponsorship deal with Abu Dhabi telecommunications company Etisalat were time-barred. However, the CAS panel ruled, by a majority of two to one, that City’s main sponsor Etihad had “fully complied” with the payments agreed to City during a period when the statute of limitations did not apply.
The Premier League rules do not contain any explicit limitation element, but are constructed in accordance with English law and the associated limitation periods.
“I’m glad it starts on Monday and I know there will be more rumours about the sentences that will be handed down, and we’ll see,” added Guardiola, who has masterminded an unprecedented level of success at City since taking charge in 2016, winning six Premier League titles in seven seasons.
“I know what people are looking for, I know what they expect. I know because I’ve read it for many years. But I said everyone is innocent until proven guilty. So we’ll see.”
