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 yesterday 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 today, 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.”
Meanwhile, Everton boss Sean Dyche said he was shocked by the “unjust” 10-point penalty deduction. Everton were hit with the bombshell sanction last week after they exceeded losses permitted under the Premier League’s financial rules. The unprecedented punishment, the biggest points penalty in Premier League history, leaves Everton 19th in the table and two points from safety.
Everton have announced their intention to appeal and, in his first public comments since the verdict, Dyche said the deduction was harsh. “I think like everyone in these parts, we’re shocked. Seemingly the wave of noise after that, it seemed like most people in football, around football are shocked,” Dyche said. “The enormity of it, disproportionate is a word that has been used by the club, so obviously we’re going to feel a bit aggrieved by that.”
The Premier League referred Everton, who have posted losses for five consecutive years, to an independent commission in March for the breach of its profitability and sustainability rules. Clubs are allowed to lose a maximum £105mn ($132mn) over a three-year period but Everton exceeded that by £19.5mn in the three seasons ending in 2021/22.
After saving Everton from relegation last season, Dyche had hoped to oversee a rise to mid-table respectability for the serial underachievers this term.
