Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City should get an apology after they won their appeal against a two-year UEFA ban.
[ MORE: What now for Man City, PL? ]
Manchester City saw their ban overturned on Monday as their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was successful. UEFA had claimed that Man City’s hierarchy broke Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules between 2012-16 but CAS ruled that the punishment dished out by European soccer’s governing body was too severe and a $34 million fine was reduced to $11.3 million.
That means Guardiola’s men can play in the Champions League next season and speaking ahead of their clash against Bournemouth on Wednesday (start time, 1pm ET for FREE via Peacock), Guardiola came out all guns blazing.
“We were damaged. Our prestige and reputation was damaged,” Guardiola said.
He was then asked about comments from Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho who called the whole situation ‘disgraceful’ when it came to the way Man City were treated.
“We should be apologized [to],” Mourinho said. “If we did something wrong, we will accept absolutely the decisions. We have the right to defend ourselves when we believe what we have done is right. Today is a good day for football. If we broke the rules we would have been banned. The club believed what they have done is right and three judges have said we have done it properly. The people who said we were cheating and lying, presumption of innocence was not there.”
Guardiola is not holding back here. From the get-go both he, the club and their legal representatives have vowed to clear their name and they’ve done it.
This is a huge victory for Manchester City on multiple levels.Not least because they faced potentially losing big name players and maybe even Guardiola had they been banned from the Champions League for two seasons, not to mention a new financial reality as their spending would have been limited due to the loss of income from Champions League action.
Man City are one of the favorites to win the Champions League this season and when it restarts in August, Guardiola and his players will be fired up to prove all those who believed they were guilty, were wrong.