Pep Guardiola explains desire to stay at Man City despite Premier League charges

The Spanish coach is adamant the club has been telling him the truth despite more than 100 Premier League charges for alleged financial breaches

Pep Guardiola has vowed to stay at Manchester City and said he is even more determined to remain with the champions after the Premier League charged them with 115 breaches of financial regulations.

City could face potential punishments including being expelled from the Premier League, being stripped of their titles, having a points deduction or a fine if they are found guilty and Guardiola complained that City are already being condemned, rather than being deemed innocent until proven guilty.

Last year, Guardiola said he would walk away from City if he found out he was being lied to by the club’s owners but he is adamant they have told him the truth and is convinced they will be found innocent.

Guardiola, who has a contract at the Etihad until 2025compared the case to the charges City faced in 2020 when they were initially banned from the Champions League before the suspension was overturned by Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He said: “I am not moving from this seat. I can assure you, more than ever that I want to stay. Now I don’t want to move. Not because people say. ‘They lied to you, Pep’. They didn’t lie to me. Look what happened with Uefa. I said to them: what happened? Pep, we did nothing wrong. We proved it. It is the same case.”

Guardiola believes the case against City is being driven by the other 19 clubs in the Premier League and accused them of acting as judge and jury.

He added: “What has happened this week after Monday is the same as what happened with Uefa. With Uefa we were condemned. We had already accusations, now we have just charges.

“When they told me before they defend the accusation from Uefa, the club proved we were completely innocent. Why should we not think right now when we are being condemned from charges and suggestions?

“You have to understand that between 19 teams of the Premier League is accusing us without the latest opportunity to defend and the words of my chairman, my CEO, my people explain everything during these three or four years. You know exactly on what side I am.

“I would say we are lucky we live in a marvellous country where we have a society where everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We didn’t have this opportunity. We are already sentenced and tough.

Guardiola said that, compared to 2020, he is more convinced this time that City will be found not guilty. He has spoken to chief executive Ferran Soriano and chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak and added: “I would say they are more confident, maybe they have more experience and more information. They have a lot of pages that they present to UEFA that they are now introduce against the Premier League.”