Pep Guardiola has said Manchester City’s Premier League rivals want to see the club punished for alleged breaches of the top flight’s financial rules.
Guardiola, however, said he is delighted the hearing into City’s 115 charges will begin on Monday.
City were charged and referred to an independent commission in February 2023 following a four-year investigation.
It is alleged City breached the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018, which they denied, and have said their case is supported by a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence”.
President of Spain’s La Liga, Javier Tebas is a long-time critic of City, owned by the Abu Dhabi-backed City Football Group and has repeatedly accused the them – together with Qatar-backed PSG – of being a state club and of “financial doping”.
The La Liga boss said he has spoken to many Premier League clubs and believes they want to see the current champions punished.
“I have spoken with many Premier League clubs and most of them understand that City should be sanctioned,” he was quoted as saying by Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo.
Responding to these comments on Friday, Guardiola said for the first time he agrees with Tebas.
“All the Premier League teams want us to be sanctioned, that is for sure. But that’s why I say to Mr Tebas and the Premier League teams, wait for the independent panel.
“Justice is there in a modern democracy. It’s not more complicated than that.
“I don’t know if he is a lawyer or the rest of the Premier League teams are lawyers, so I ask for that. It happened with Uefa.
“We believe we have not done anything wrong.”
The trial is expected to run for 10 weeks – with a verdict likely in early 2025.
Also, the Premier League has accused the reigning champions of not co-operating with its investigation.
When the Premier League investigation began, City said the allegations were “entirely false” and that allegations originally published in German newspaper Der Spiegel came from “illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails”.
If found guilty of the most serious charges, City could be hit with a points deduction serious enough to condemn them to relegation – or even expulsion – from the Premier League.
