Pep Guardiola is unhappy with comments made by his fellow Premier League managers – and he has let them know it. This follows a letter sent to CAS and signed by eight clubs; Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Wolves in March. Guardiola referred to the letter as “whispering”.
“I know… the elite clubs are not comfortable with us being here,” he said.
Guardiola said Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho could call him if they wanted answers following their uncomplimentary comments about the CAS decision to overturn Man City’s UEFA ban for FFP violations amid allegations that Man City had spent more money on players than they were allowed to.
The Court of Arbitrations for Sports on Monday (July 13) reduced Manchester City’s fine from €30 million fine to €10 million and removed the UEFA Champions League suspension, reporting that “most of the alleged breaches reported were either not established or time-barred”.
Guardiola told Sky Sports News, “If they want to talk, I’m here”.
“The sentence from the three independent judges was clear. But, if they want, they know my telephone number, they can call me and I can explain. It’s not a problem at all.”
“But I think we don’t have to discuss a lot because the sentence was clear. All the suggestions that we were lying or cheating, it was not like this. We were clean like they say we are.”
“We deserve to be here and we don’t have to ask permission to be there. When we lose I shake their hands and congratulate them, all the time we have done it. Guys accept it, we wanted to be here and we tried on the pitch. If you do not agree, knock on the door and speak to our chairman and our CEO — don’t go whispering.”
“We invested a lot of money, but we did it in the right things. We are not banned, we followed the rules for FFP as they decide. If not, we’d be banned.”
Guardiorla also took a swipe on La Liga president Javier Tebas who had also questioned the CAS decision.
“He’s another one, this guy must be so jealous of the Premier League and English football. He’s an incredible legal expert, next time we’ll ask them which court should judge us.”
“There has to be worry and concern about La Liga on focus on them. These kind of people when it’s good for them it’s perfect, but if it’s against them, it’s a problem for the others. We’ll be in the Champions League next season, Mr. Tebas. What we did, we did properly.”
