Pep Guardiola has issued a firm public backing of Manchester City after the club were officially found guilty of more than 100 breaches of the Premier League\u2019s financial regulations.<\/p>\n
The former manager, whose long spell in charge was later crowned with trophies, aligned himself with the club\u2019s hierarchy despite earlier remarks that suggested his support would depend on the truth of the situation. City have rejected the findings and say they possess \u201ca comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence\u201d to prove their \u201cinnocence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola, now a Global Ambassador for City Football Group after being appointed over the summer, used X to make his position clear. \u201cI want every single Man City fan to know I am here; more than ever,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am, always have been, always will, be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran [Soriano], the players, staff, Enzo [Maresca] and you, our unique supporters. Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all.\u201d<\/p>\n
That stance sits alongside comments he made in May 2022, after City overturned a two-year ban following UEFA\u2019s investigation into similar allegations covering the same period. At the time, Guardiola said his defence of the club was rooted in trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did I defend the club and the people? It\u2019s because I work with them,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they are accused of something I ask them: \u2018Tell me about that.\u2019 They explain and I believe them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added a clear warning if that trust was ever broken: \u201cI said to them: \u2018If you lie to me, the day after I am not here. I will be out and I will not be your friend any more. I put my faith in you because I believe you 100% from day one and I defend the club because of that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The independent commission described certain witnesses as \u201cdishonest\u201d in their evidence, while Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said City \u201csystematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola has continued to emphasise that the disputed period predates his arrival, with the breaches relating to financial reporting between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. He joined in the summer of 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola has publicly backed Manchester City after the club\u2019s financial rules verdict, despite earlier promises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,172],"tags":[1836,59],"class_list":["post-20956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}