Pep Guardiola warned the rest of the Premier League that they have set a precedent they may not be able to control as he accused the clubs of encouraging charges against Manchester City.
Guardiola was in a feisty mood as he defended every aspect of the club's position regarding the dozens of allegations against them, insisting that he was fully committed at the Etihad and believed everything he had been told by the club. The City manager also indicated that the club were more confident of being cleared than they were at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled in their favour.
As much as the decision was made by the Premier League, the City boss was adamant that its member clubs were behind the decision. Nine clubs attempted to make sure the Blues were banned from the Champions League while their appeal was heard, and Guardiola believes that more of the same behaviour is at play.
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"I think the Premier League, supported by 19 teams to put it out for the Premier League, will have good lawyers too to defend their position like we’re going to defend our position. I would have loved to wait and see and time will dictate what’s going to happen," he said.
"Just in case we are not innocent we will accept what the judge, 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?
"Because the damage is now for one decade, eight, nine, 10. One week later, UEFA make a statement against us, nine teams - Burnley, Wolves, Leicester, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, [Manchester] United, Liverpool, Chelsea - [write a letter wanting us] out of the Champions League, that they wanted that position.
"Like Julius Caesar, they are not in this world, they are not enemies or friends, just interests. They wanted to put it out to take that position that we won on the pitch, take it in our position."
Guardiola was in no doubt that the words from his own club mattered more to him than those of rival clubs, and also warned the rest of the league that City may not be the only team to suffer. While he does not feel the situation is unprecedented for City because of their dealings with UEFA, he is right that it is unchartered territory for the Premier League and their clubs.
"They open a precedent right now, what they have done to us - be careful, because in the future many clubs can make suggestions and there are a lot of clubs that can be accused like we are being accused without maybe being innocent," he said. "I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.
"I can have an opinion and feeling but when they push to get rid of us from this competition, that is obvious because they believe that we didn’t behave properly and we can accept that but let us defend when we believe we did it properly.
"Like we showed not one century ago, just a few years ago, the same situation we have today we had it in the past – the same thing happened in UEFA and it happened today and we didn’t learn about that. There are suggestions, not sentences about that. It’s completely different."
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