by Andy Gray believes Manchester City are owed a ‘huge’ points deduction and sees no other outcome than a guilty verdict from the upcoming Premier League trial. The reigning champions and winners of five of the six top flight titles are set to take to the courtrooms for an eagerly anticipated legal battle later this year.
City are now entering their second full season since the Premier League slapped more than 100 cases of financial breaches over a 10-year period when they began to dominate English football. Despite the opening and closing of other, and very different, financial cases during 2023/24 alone, City have yet to be fully aware of their own honest situation.
However, ahead of the home clash against Ipswich on Saturday, Pep Guardiola opened up about his thoughts on the matter. “I am happy that it will start soon and I hope it will finish soon, for the sake of all of us, especially the club but also other clubs in the Premier League and all the people who are not waiting for the sentence,” he said.
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“I wish, from deep in my heart, to go to the trial, the independent panel – and I say again, an independent panel – and as soon as possible release what happened and we will accept it as we did always.” Guardiola has been regularly questioned about the charges and their potential impact, but continues to play down its effect on his players.
“No, we’ve been talking about that for three or four years,” he said. We know it’s going to happen, we accept it and focus on our games.”
City are now closer than ever to the all-clear, however, and former Manchester United and Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre can only see one outcome. “He knows what’s coming,” said the Frenchman on beIN Sport. “The points deduction. ‘As soon as we get the points deduction we can start the season’, that was my feeling.”
Discussing the matter again, presenter Gray and BeIN presenter Richard Keys described their feelings on the matter. Here, Sportsman everything is said by the pair.
Andy Gray: They are starting ‘soon’, have we got a date?
Richard Keys: It’s coming up.
TO: At the beginning of next year.
RK: January next year.
TO: That’s what I mean, so next year in January, we’ll get some sort of answers from the independent tribunal there. Yes, it is a very different time. They have ignored it, a lot.
We haven’t heard anything from Guardiola about solving this to keep everyone happy and it’s time we did. This is the first time I have ever heard him speak those words about it.
What will happen? Imagine, and I don’t know, I imagine it will be like a points deduction, a huge one.
RK: That is if he is found guilty.
TO: They will be guilty. There are 115 charges and they will plead not guilty to all of them.
RK: Well, they might be guilty of some of the lesser charges rather than the more significant ones.
TO: I think we both know, well, without the independent tribunal, they wouldn’t have been charged unless there was some evidence around them that suggested they might be guilty. So ok, maybe they are innocent out of 115, but we should have found that out years ago.
RK: So why do we think they have been running for so long? They’ve gone into hiding, and now all of a sudden they’re pretty much out front.
What I said on behalf of the Manchester City fans, it should have happened a long time ago because everything that has been won, still in that period, comes with an asterisk until this situation is resolved.
TO: But will that affect them. Whatever the verdict is, and in this case Richard you would know more than I do about the legalities of all this, is there anything going to happen in this verdict that will change what they have already won?
RK: Certainly, if there is a judgment that casts a shadow of doubt on the way the football club was run during their period of success, in my opinion, yes. Everything they have won in that time has to be questioned, it has to be.
In my opinion, I’m with you, the realist in me, I don’t believe in it [sic] skeptics, I think we are more realists, or cynics. Realism is the word, I look at that and conclude that maybe someone gave it a little direction.
Better to fix it sooner than later, that’s for sure. Don’t you also think, what has been gained, if they are found guilty, for not running the club properly during that period…
TO: It is possible, but in the event that it can be considered that any title they have won in the last seven years has been determined that what could or could be found is guilty of it.
RK: It must have done.
TO: Well I don’t know that. I think that’s a big thing for the Premier League and for an independent tribunal to come out and say…
RK: I don’t follow your idea. How can they come out of that and think it’s not?
TO: This is what I told you. If they are found guilty of, who knows, 115 charges…
RK: Financial irregularities.
TO: It would be easy for everyone, the Premier League, the bench, to walk away from this if they were saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to charge you a certain amount at the end, we’re going to give you 40 points this season. . . They will still stay up, even if they get docked 40 points this season, right, they will still stay up, even if they get docked 40 points.
They won’t win the league, I’m guessing, but they would stay up because they’re good enough to take that and stay in the league.
RK: Agreed. If that was the case and they were found guilty of irregularities from the period of unprecedented success, then surely we have to decide that it might not have happened if it wasn’t for the way the club was run during that period.
TO: I think that would prove, yes. Do you honestly think, that you know what you know, that you know that the people who are doing this are judging this…
RK: It’s an independent panel, Andy.
TO: Yes, all right. Do you honestly believe they’re going to turn around and say, ‘We’re going to win three or four titles.’
RK: No, no. i understand I am with you now. I don’t think they will take league titles away from them but I think those of us who watch football would look very differently at what they won if they were found guilty of irregularities during that period of time.
TO: So that’s what I’m saying. I don’t think they’ll take the title away from them, so what can they do? They can deduct points from them now, they can fine them. Fine them? Who cares. They can fine as much as they want, Manchester City don’t care, they can pay that out of their back pocket.
All I can see is a huge points deduction and a huge fine.
RK: Well, bring it on as Guardiola says, because then we can stop talking about it.
