Pep wants apology as rivals slam City reprieve
PEP: No, it was a VERY good day for football...
MANCHESTER CITY and Liverpool were at loggerheads last night after Pep Guardiola demanded that the Premier League champions should apologise over a ‘whispering’ campaign about his club’s conduct. Guardiola took aim at Liverpool and others, just moments after Jurgen Klopp had insisted the decision which rescinded City’s two-season Champions League ban was ‘not a good day for football’. Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho also labelled the decision ‘a disgrace’ in an extraordinary round of press conferences which broke into open warfare over City’s acquittal. Guardiola took aim at the eight Premier League teams who wrote a joint letter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as revealed by
Sportsmail in March, opposing the prospect of City applying to freeze the ban prior to their three-day appeal hearing in June. Seething as he spoke, Guardiola said: ‘I tell
Jose and Jurgen that it was a good day for football. A very good day. We played with the same rules as everyone. If we broke them then we would have been banned. How many times have people come to our club whispering about us?
‘I’d love for it to finish. Look in our eyes and say something to us face to face. We’ll shake hands if we lose. But they lost off the pitch. They have to go on the pitch and try to beat us like the sportsmen that we are.
‘Jose and other managers should know that our reputation was damaged and we should be apologised to. Don’t go behind us and start whispering, seven or eight clubs. Our prestige and reputation was damaged with accusations that now we have shown were not true. The people should accept it. We should complain and we aren’t.
‘The people said we were cheating, lying, many times. The presumption of innocence was not there. I know that for elite clubs — especially Liverpool, United, Arsenal — it is uncomfortable us being here but they have to understand we deserve to be with them, competing with them.’
Guardiola appeared surprised that the Premier League champions also signed the letter, given their own participation in next season’s Champions League was effectively secure.
‘All these clubs Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester, Wolves, Man United, Tottenham, Liverpool — Liverpool, Burnley I understand they want the five positions,’ he added.
‘We were with the eight clubs. We wanted a resolution.
‘But don’t go behind and whisper. Next time before you make phone calls, call our chairman and say: “Guys, all these clubs we are going to do it all together”.’
Guardiola’s comments will receive short shrift on Merseyside, where concerns about City breaking FFP rules go back six years — when they were fined heavily by UEFA for the offence.
Liverpool’s American owners, Fenway Sports Group, have always viewed as a nonsense City’s belief that FFP is a system designed to enshrine the power of football’s establishment and keep out new challengers such as them.
Liverpool made it clear they expected strong action by UEFA when City were in breach in 2014.
Klopp voiced fears that the CAS decision would destroy FFP — as many analysts believe it will — creating a spending free-for-all in which a wealthy owner could spend ‘a billion a day of his own money’ and destroy the sport. The decision could ultimately see the ‘richest people or countries’ breaking away into a money-no-object super league, he declared.
The German said: ‘It is a little bit like F1 — if you open the door to a private jet and you see who is quicker, the aeroplane will win. If the car is in a specific way then the best driver wins. It is about the competition.
‘There are some rules and we should just try to stick to them.’
Ahead of the champions’ trip to Arsenal tonight, Klopp insisted that he was glad City were back in Europe and that the idea of them playing ‘10-12 games less, and resting players’ meant no chance next season for ‘any teams in the league’.
He said: ‘I don’t wish anybody anything bad. I don’t want them to lose money or whatever. It’s just that if there are rules, it makes sense that we stick to them and not only some.
‘If we agree on FFP — and that is what we did — and you are not happy with FFP afterwards, that makes no sense as well.
‘If... nobody has to care any more at all and the richest people or countries can do what they want in football, then that could make the competition really difficult.
‘I think that would lead automatically to a kind of world super league with like ten clubs.’
Mourinho’s questioning of the CAS decision was even stronger, with the Swiss court the subject of his own wrath.
‘It’s a disgraceful decision,’ said Mourinho. ‘If Man City is not guilty, to be punished with some millions is a disgrace. If you are not guilty you are not punished. By the other way, if they are guilty, they should be banned. In any case, the decision is a disaster.
‘I’m not saying Man City is guilty. I’m saying if you’re not guilty you don’t pay. You are not punished, even with a pound. I know money is quite easy for them, but it’s just a principle.
‘My criticism is not for Man City. Maybe they got unlucky. Maybe they don’t deserve to be punished by one single pound and they were punished by eight or nine million. Let’s open the door of the circus and let people enjoy, don’t pay, go in, come out, and do what they want, go inside, and stay for the clowns show, and go out because I don’t like the horses show. I go out and come in. There is no control. Let people enjoy freedom.’
On the eve of a trip to Newcastle, Mourinho predicted a bonanza of recruitment for Steve Bruce if a takeover by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia is approved by the Premier League.
‘With no FFP, maybe a new owner goes there and spends lots of money,’ he said.
Mourinho built his great Chelsea team bankrolled by Roman Abramovich, and admitted he did enjoy this power in the transfer market in the pre-FFP era.
Guardiola — incandescent when Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu ‘thanked’ UEFA for banning City from the Champions League — implied Arsene Wenger had been a hypocrite on this issue.
‘In the last decade, we’ve spent more than in the past, yes, but 30 years ago Arsene Wenger spent.
Arsene, the guy who perfectly defends Financial Fair Play... so Arsene, you know that Manchester City was correct with what we have done.
‘Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson spent a lot of money. When Chelsea started to win Premier Leagues, they invested more than the others. Barcelona and Real Madrid spent a lot of money.’
Before tonight’s home game with Bournemouth, Guardiola reserved his strongest condemnation and sarcasm for La Liga president Javier Tebas, who lambasted CAS in the immediate aftermath of the verdict and has been City’s most vocal public critic.
‘He’s another one, this guy Senor Tebas must be so jealous of English football,’ said Guardiola.
‘He’s an incredible legal expert from what I see.
‘Maybe next time I’ll ask them which court and judges we have to go to.’
‘How many times have people come to our club whispering about us? Look in our eyes and say something to us face to face’ — PEP GUARDIOLA