Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City Football Club, was clearly agitated during his press conference on Friday.
He accused the other 19 clubs in the Premier League of conspiring against his team and bringing false allegations against them.
This comes after the club was charged by the Premier League for breaching financial rules more than 100 times over multiple years following a four-year investigation.
Guardiola expressed his frustration with the situation and stated that it feels like the club has already been condemned, even though they haven’t been given a chance to defend themselves.
He said:
“My first thought is that we have already been condemned.”
“So, what’s happened since Monday happened before with UEFA – we were condemned, we already have the accusation, now we have charges.
“You have to understand that 19 teams in the Premier League are accusing us without letting us [have the] opportunity to defend in the words of my club, my owner, my chairman, my people. They explain everything during these three or four years. You know exactly on what side I am.”
The Manchester City manager emphasized that all the club is asking for is the opportunity to defend itself and pointed out that in England, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. However, in this case, it seems like the club has already been found guilty without any proper investigation or trial.
The potential punishment for the club ranges from a deduction of points to being expelled from the Premier League, and this has led to City hiring one of the best lawyers in the world to defend their case.
Guardiola believes that the case should happen immediately and be settled in one, two or three months, but he thinks it will take a lot longer to settle.
Despite the frustration and anger, Guardiola remains confident that Manchester City will be exonerated in the end and that they will be able to clear their name.