“Maybe he’s right” – Pep Guardiola believes almost ALL Premier League clubs want Manchester City punished over 115 charges | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has sensationally admitted to agreeing with La Liga president Javier Tebas following his claim of Premier League clubs wanting Manchester City punished.

Tebas has continuously been an outspoken critic of the operation at the Etihad Stadium, issuing comments of anger towards Manchester City over the manner in which they spend in the transfer market in particular.

From the side of the Premier League champions, they have continuously pushed back on Tebas’ claims, with both chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and CEO Ferran Soriano responding to the Spanish football boss’ outbursts in the past.

Speaking last year, Tebas revealed, “I was at Soccer Ex in Manchester in 2017. I criticised PSG and Manchester City. I said City should be sanctioned by UEFA. Then I had a call from Ferran Soriano who was angry with me and asked me to come to City’s premises.”

Now commenting during a recent press conference, Pep Guardiola surprised listeners by revealing he agrees with the latest claims from the La Liga president, after the Spanish football boss claimed ‘many’ Premier League clubs want to see Manchester City punished.

“Yeah, maybe he’s right,” Guardiola reflected when comments from Tebas were put to him on Friday afternoon. “No, for the fact that we play against Premier League teams and they want us to be sanctioned, that’s for sure.”

Guardiola continued, “I agree with Tebas for the first time, hopefully the last. I am pretty sure I am in agreement with that. So that’s why I said that Mr Tebas and the Premier League teams, wait! No independent panel (yet), that is the justice, it’s there, in the modern democracy countries. So wait for the decision. It’s not much more complicated than that.

“But I don’t know if he’s a lawyer or all the Premier League teams are lawyers. So what I ask is that; wait! It happened with UEFA and every time, so if we did something wrong, we believe we have not done anything wrong, so we’ll go to the independent panel and we are going to wait.”

The hearing into Manchester City’s 115 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules began on Monday, with the club first charged and referred to an independent commission in February 2023.

Manchester City continue to strongly deny all charges put against them, and said upon the first release of the charges that their case is also supported by a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”.