Mourinho: Football’s become a circus
Pep demands apology from the ‘whisperers’
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PEP GUARDIOLA wants his biggest rivals to apologise for trying to get Manchester City banned from next year’s Champions League.
The City boss is fuming about what he claims was a whispering campaign designed to influence UEFA to act against them in their Financial Fair Play battle.
And he hit back at major rivals Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho after they slammed the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to uphold City’s appeal against a two-year Champions League ban.
Guardiola said: “Jose and all the managers should know that we were damaged. We should be apologised to. Like I said many times, if we did something wrong, we will accept UEFA’S decision.”
The City boss is also seething
JOSE MOURINHO claims the decision not to ban Manchester City from the Champions League has made football into a “circus”.
The Spurs boss says the decision has destroyed Financial Fair Play and given the green light for rich owners to splash the cash.
Mourinho’s main complaint is that if City had been innocent, they
that up to eight Premier League clubs – including Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea – contacted CAS in March demanding City shouldn’t be allowed to start next season’s Champions League campaign if the appeal took longer than expected.
“But we don’t expect Liverpool or
Tottenham or Arsenal or Chelsea or Wolves or all the clubs are going to defend (us). We can defend ourselves.
“We believe what we have done is correct, is right and three independent judges said this. So this was a good day for football.
“We were damaged. People said we cheated and were lying, many, many times. The presumption of innocence was not there.
“What happened in the last years, how many times people came to our club whispering about us. I would like to say to these kinds of people, ‘Look in our eyes and if you want to say something, say it face to face’.
“And go on the pitch, where we have to play as rivals, and if you beat us, don’t doubt it, we will shake hands and we’ll congratulate them.
“But they lost off the pitch. They have to go on the pitch and try to beat us, like the sportsmen we are.
“They are just the opinions of Jurgen and Jose, but I tell Jose and Jurgen, today was a good day for football, a very good day.”