MANCHESTER — Pep Guardiola offered defiance and comfort after Manchester City was found guilty of deliberate financial rule-breaking over nine years, posting "Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all." on social media last week as the club prepares an appeal. The former manager, who left City in the summer but remains employed by City Football Group as a global ambassador, is expected to attend next week's Champions League tie against Paris St-Germain at Etihad Stadium, the club's first home match since the verdicts were announced.
Guardiola, who joined City in 2016 midway through the 2009-18 period covered by the charges, had long tied his future to the club's assurances. "I said to them: 'If 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,'" he said on May 7, 2022. He added, "When they are accused of something, I ask them: 'Tell me about that.' They explain and I believe them." He had previously insisted a guilty verdict would change his relationship with the club, though after leaving he reaffirmed his kinship with City and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
His earliest response came furiously after a 6-0 victory over Watford in the FA Cup final, when he was asked by Sky News' Rob Harris whether he had ever received separate, undeclared payments after the Football Leaks website published hacked information suggesting former manager Roberto Mancini had been paid in such a way. "Did I receive money for another situation, right now, today? Honestly, do you think I deserve to have this type of question, the day we won the treble... did I receive money? Are you accusing me of receiving money?" Guardiola said. "I listen to my chairman and my CEO, and I trust them. They tell me we are fair and we absolutely follow the rules. I believe them." Mancini said last month: "It's not an issue that concerns me. It's nothing new because this matter has been discussed for the last four or five years. Manchester City has not been found guilty, and the alleged double contract is not my concern. It's their issue, not mine."
Guardiola was bullish after UEFA found City guilty of breaking its Financial Fair Play rules and banned the club from European competition for two years. "We appeal. When someone believes they are right, they have to fight. The club has to fight and I trust the club 100% what they have done and they have explained to me," he said on Feb. 19, 2020. "This situation is not finished and we will wait. But until it is resolved you have to play and play, and that is what is going to happen." After the Court of Arbitration for Sport lifted the suspension on July 14, 2020, clearing the more serious charges as unproven or time-barred, he said: "We were damaged. The people say we cheated and were lying - and many times. The presumption of innocence wasn't there."
The tone sharpened again when the Premier League announced 115 charges on Feb. 10, 2023. "My first thought is that we are already being condemned. I am fully convinced we will be innocent," Guardiola said. "Just in case we are not innocent we will accept what the judge in the Premier League decides, but what happens if in the same situation that Uefa happened we are innocent - what happens to restore or pay back our damage?" City is now appealing the latest guilty verdicts as rival clubs want a range of punishments and senior figures have questioned the club being in next season's Champions League.