Pep Guardiola’s response to Manchester City being found guilty of deliberate financial rule-breaking over nine years arrived last week as a social media post. “Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all,” it read.
To some, the intervention came as a surprise. Guardiola is no longer in a managerial position, having left City in the summer, and was under no obligation to comment. He remains employed by the club’s owners, City Football Group, as a global ambassador, and next week he is expected to attend City’s Champions League tie against Paris St-Germain — the club’s first home match since the guilty verdicts were announced. City are appealing against those verdicts.
Guardiola joined City in 2016, most of the way through the 2009-18 period the charges relate to, and across a decade in charge he insisted repeatedly that guilty verdicts would change his relationship with the club. His public record on the subject stretches back to 18 May 2019, the day City beat Watford 6-0 in the FA Cup final. Asked by Sky News’ Rob Harris whether he had ever received separate, undeclared payments from the club on top of his contracted salary — a question that followed Football Leaks’ publication of hacked information suggesting Roberto Mancini had been paid in such a way — Guardiola reacted furiously. “Do you know the question you’re asking me? Did I receive money for another situation, right now, today? Honestly, do you think I deserve to have this type of question, the day we won the treble… did I receive money? Are you accusing me of receiving money?” He added that he listened to his chairman and chief executive, trusted them, and believed them when they told him the club were fair and followed the rules. Mancini said last month that the matter did not concern him: “Manchester City has not been found guilty, and the alleged double contract is not my concern. It’s their issue, not mine.”
In February 2020, Uefa found City guilty of breaking its Financial Fair Play rules and banned them from European competition for two years. Guardiola was bullish about the club’s right to appeal. “We appeal. When someone believes they are right, they have to fight. The club has to fight and I trust the club 100% what they have done and they have explained to me,” he said. Five months later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport lifted the suspension and cleared City of the more serious charges, finding some unproven and, in some cases, that too much time had passed since the alleged rule-breaking. “We were damaged,” Guardiola said in response. “The people say we cheated and were lying – and many times. The presumption of innocence wasn’t there.”
In May 2022 he set out the foundation of his defence. “Why did I defend the club and the people? It’s because I work with them. When they are accused of something, I ask them: ‘Tell me about that.’ They explain and I believe them,” he said, adding that he had told the hierarchy he would be gone the following day and would no longer be their friend if they lied to him. He also insisted he would resign if the club were found guilty and distance himself from anyone who had lied. He left City in the months before the guilty verdict was confirmed, and in his response last week he reaffirmed his kinship with the club and with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
When the Premier League announced it was pursuing 115 charges against City in February 2023, Guardiola spoke at an extraordinarily tense media conference. “My first thought is that we are already being condemned. I am fully convinced we will be innocent,” he said, welcoming the chance to defend the club, expressing confidence in its lawyers, and accepting that the club would abide by the judge’s decision — while asking what would happen to restore the club’s damage if it were cleared, as had occurred with Uefa. City beat Aston Villa 3-1 in their first match after the charges were announced.
By May 2023, Guardiola was expressing exasperation at the pace of a process that would ultimately run just over three and a half years. “We would love [the verdict] tomorrow – this afternoon better than tomorrow,” he said, adding: “What we won on the pitch, we don’t have any doubts.” In November 2023 he made two pledges: to hold a media conference once the sentence had been handed down, and to continue managing the club in League One if such a punishment came. “You are questioning like we have been punished. And in the moment, we are innocent until guilt is proved,” he said. “I know the people want it. I know, I feel it. I will wait. Wait and see it and after the sentence has been done we will come here and explain it. There is more chance [for me] to stay if we are in League One than if we were in the Champions League.” His summer exit thwarted the second promise, but he would repeat the first later.
In August 2024, weeks before the legal hearing began, he said: “I am happy that it starts soon and hopefully it will finish soon. We will accept [the verdict], like we have always done.” As the hearing opened the following month, he returned to the theme of a football world presuming City’s guilt. “I know what people are looking for. I know what they are expecting – I know it because I have read it for many years. Everyone is innocent until guilt is proven. It’s like everyone doesn’t expect us to be not just relegated, they want us to disappear off the face of the earth,” he said. In February 2025 he anticipated a final verdict within a month; in reality it was a long way off. When the independent commission panel finally published its findings last week, it expressed frustration at how long the process had taken.
On 23 May 2026, as he left Manchester City, Guardiola restated his belief in the club’s innocence one last time. “I trust them. I spoke with them and trust how they behave and how they did. What happened, happened,” he said, before returning to his promise to face questions once the verdict arrived: “If you find me, yeah, but that will be difficult.”
His record on speaking out has been selective. He was outspoken on Catalan independence and on Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, but in some instances he sidestepped questions on human rights in the United Arab Emirates, whose government includes key members of City’s hierarchy, and did not broach the UAE’s alleged role in the ongoing conflict in Sudan, which has accused it of being complicit in genocide. The UAE has strongly rejected the allegations.
Guardiola won 20 trophies in 10 seasons as City manager. Next week he is expected back at the Etihad Stadium for the club’s first home match since the verdicts, this time as a global ambassador for the owners rather than the man in the dugout.