Former Manchester City captain Kyle Walker has said the club’s achievements cannot be erased from the memories of the players who won them, despite Manchester City being found guilty of all charges of breaching Premier League financial rules over a nine-year period.
City have appealed against last week’s judgment by an independent commission, which found the club broke rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18 and boosted its income by more than £900m.
Walker, now captain of Burnley, spent eight years at City from 2017 to 2025, winning the Champions League and 12 major domestic honours. Speaking on TalkSport, he acknowledged the verdict “doesn’t look great” but declined to discuss the legal action in detail while the appeal process is ongoing. “It’s in an appeal stage so for me to start commenting on the legal action … it’s not going to do myself justice or anyone involved in it,” he said.
He added that the experiences shared by the players remain theirs regardless of the outcome. “But, at a personal level, I can say the lads, we spent many and many a great year celebrating many trophies and everything like that and that’s something that, whatever happens, they can’t take away from us because we’ve experienced them nights,” Walker said. “So, whatever will be, will be, and it’s just down to the appeal now and what goes from there.”
Walker also said the subject is difficult for former players. “It’s something we don’t want to talk about because we want to be looked upon as winning them trophies, winning them the right way,” he said. “It’s very difficult because we’ve worked very hard for them.”
Manchester City released a statement last Friday maintaining their position. “The club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe,” it read. “The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions relating to this case.”