Former Manchester City midfielder Rodri has backed the club’s insistence that they did nothing wrong, saying he will continue to believe in their innocence unless they are proved otherwise.
Manchester City have been found guilty of breaking the majority of the 115 financial rules they were accused of breaching by the Premier League, although they are set to appeal the verdict.
Speaking at a news conference before Spain’s Uefa Nations League match against England at Wembley, Rodri, who joined Barcelona in August after making 298 appearances for City between 2018 and 2026, explained why he still trusts the club. “They always express the confidence that they never did something wrong and we believe in that,” the 30-year-old said. “Until the moment they are proved wrong, we will believe the club. They always tell us the confidence they have on the innocence.”
The midfielder pointed to Manchester City’s successful challenge against Uefa’s financial fair play charges as the basis for that confidence. City were cleared of separate financial fair play charges by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2020, having initially been given a two-year ban from European competitions by Uefa. “We had the example of 2020 that the process was the same and at the end nothing happened,” Rodri said. “We have faced something similar, we had a similar judicial process. Different accusation but similar process. There as well in the first instance we were found guilty, but we believed in the club and the innocence that the club maintained and in the end we ended up acquitted. So, I believe in the justice system, and I believe in the innocence of the club.”
Rodri also rejected the prospect of City being stripped of titles as part of any punishment. The club won eight trophies across the period covered by the Premier League case — three league titles, three League Cups, one Community Shield and one FA Cup. “What we did, they cannot take out of us,” he said. “It’s something that is not paid by money. It’s paid with effort, with the damage, with, you know, being shoulder to shoulder every day. I can tell you that everything was deserved, and I’m glad that I could live one of the best eras of English football in here.”
The verdict has also drawn a cautious response from Andy Burnham, who urged people not to jump to conclusions and to study the independent commission’s report. “I would have to look at the report of the independent commission, and people shouldn’t jump to those kinds of conclusions,” he told ITV Granada. “I know this has been a long process between the club and the Premier League. I think it has been quite a contested process. So I don’t think it’s as simple as jumping to conclusions. I think we would all need to study the independent commission’s report in some considerable detail before reaching any conclusions.”