Pep Guardiola Hits Back at UEFA President

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola is furious regarding comments made by UEFA president and former lawyer, Aleksander Ceferin.

Back in February 2020, the club was found guilty of both breaking Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and misleading UEFA. As a result, they were banned from the UEFA Champions League for two seasons and handed a €30-million fine.

Although the Court of Arbitration for Sport later lifted the suspension and reduced the fine to €10 million, the Citizens found themselves hit with 115 charges by the English Premier League (EPL) for allegedly breaching FFP rules three years later.

As such, Ceferin remarked in an interview published last Tuesday, 23 January, that UEFA “were right” in imposing their initial punishment.

In a pre-game press conference held three days later, Guardiola criticised Ceferin for being disrespectful of the ongoing process, specifically City’s efforts to defend themselves.

“As a lawyer that he is, the president of UEFA should wait, and after [he can] do whatever he wants,” Guardiola fumed. “He has to respect it and he has to wait. He has a lot of jobs to do at UEFA. Lawyers should respect procedure and understand we have [the] right to defend ourselves.”

City continues to participate in the EPL, which has yet to schedule an official date for a case hearing.

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