Manchester City staff believe Pep Guardiola would leave the Premier League champions before any possible sanctions kick in over alleged breaches of financial rules, according to reports.
Man City stand accused of breaching the Premier League financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 season.
The club are alleged to have broken rules related to true financial reporting, the submission of every detail of manager and player pay within relevant contracts, the duty to abide by UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations, also the duty to abide by Premier League profitability and sustainability regulations and the duty to co-operate with investigations.
A City statement expressed shock that the said breaches had been published, given the club’s “extensive engagement” with the league on the matter. The club claim they look forward to the independent commission considering the “irrefutable evidence” to support their position.
The possible sanctions are being discussed in the press and on social media with a report in The Sun claiming today that their Premier League rivals are pushing for relegation if Man City are found guilty of the breaches.
And now, accirding to the Daily Mail ‘staff behind the scenes at Manchester City expect Pep Guardiola to have already departed before any possible sanctions for financial rule breaches hit’.
While speaking in May 2022, Guardiola said: “I said to them, ‘If you lie to me, I am not here. I will be out,’ which has raised questions about whether a guilty verdict would end the Catalan’s time in charge.”
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And there is growing expectation that Guardiola will not be in charge by the time any sanctions are levelled against City after he was one of the very first to be told of the news among City’s key figures before it was made public.
There have been reports that one of the punishments Man City could face is relegation if they are found guilty – but the Daily Telegraph claim that the EFL could reject the Citizens as they would have no obligation to accept City into their leagues.
La Liga president Javier Tebas who has been very criticial of Man City & Paris Saint-Germain for years over their spending, reacted to the news that the club had been charged by the Premier League on social media.
Tebas tweeted: “On 9-5-2017 we denounced in Soccerex Manchester the breaches of the @ManCity and @PSG_espanol of financial fair play.
“It is incredible that the @premierleague took years to find out. We denounce that there are more cases, will it take so many years too?”
