Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak promised to air his "very strong views" on the Premier League charges the club faces after the legal process has been completed.
Treble winners City were hit by a string of incredibly serious charges in February by the Premier League, accusing them of misrepresenting their finances for almost a decade of football as well as failling to co-operate with an investigation in to that. The Blues have denied all of the alleged rule breaches and want to clear their name, although the unprecedented nature and scale of the charges mean a decision may not come for years.
Pep Guardiola has been the only senior figure to comment on the charges in the four months since they were announced, but Al Mubarak briefly addressed the issue in his end-of-season interview with club media. While he did not go into detail, the chairman did say he would be more candid at the end of the battle.
"Obviously I can’t talk about them unfortunately for legal reasons," he said on the day after the Champions League final. "And what I would typically always do is comment after, so I think we’re going to go through, we’re going through the legal process.
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"These are proceedings that take whatever time they take and when we’re done, we’ll have a conversation. I’ll give you my very blunt views, I promise you that. I have very strong views on that, but I am going to be unfortunately very restrained today.”
While the charges have not been proven, many have already made their mind up. A Yougov survey shortly after found that three in every four people thought the Blues were likely to have committed what they were accused of, although 60 per cent thought they would get away without serious punishment. The fact that Premier League chief executive Richard Masters ended up handing the trophy over to a club who his organisation could seek to expel from the league was a surreal reflection of how daily life is continuing while the charges hang over City's head.
That uncertainty over City's achievements annoyed Guardiola as his team celebrated winning a fifth Premier League in six years, with the manager changing his tune to ask for legal proceedings to be wrapped up as soon as possible for clarity. Al Mubarak, too, wants the players judged for the 'reality' of things that they have won.
"It’s very frustrating because it takes so much from the great work that’s happening at this club and it’s happening not just on the football pitch. The football pitch – we talked about that, what these players have achieved this year, the Treble, is incredible," he said.
"I hope people focus and judge them for their football and what they’re achieving on the pitch and what they’re achieving in every competition they’re in. That’s the reality.
"The club as a whole is well run, is very well run. Today, the value of this group is over six billion dollars. We’ve created so much value – we’ve brought in world class investors. Why? Because we have a commercial machine here that is one of the best in the world.
"Our executives are being targeted by the best teams in the world – always. By the way – it’s a credit to us. I respect that.
"People appreciate that we are producing – not just the best talent on the pitch, not just the best talent in the academy, not just the best talent in the group, but we’re producing some of the best executives in the world, some of the best scouts in the world, some of the best sporting staff in the world. And that’s a testament to the great work that this group is doing.
"We’re the number one football brand in the world. These are the facts; these are the facts."
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