Man City FFP: ‘Easy target’ City ‘will win’ their PL case as relegation claims are ‘nonsense’

Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony insists Man City “will win” their Premier League financial fair play case.

The Citizens lifted their fourth consecutive Premier League title last season with Pep Guardiola’s side deserving of another title after a relentless finish to the season.

Man City were charged in February 2023 with more than 100 breaches of the competition’s financial fair play regulations dating back to 2009 .

The club could face a points deduction or even expulsion from the competition if found guilty but Man City have vociferously denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight their case.

To many critics of the club, which is supported by the vast wealth of owner Sheikh Mansour, the Premier League charges cast a shadow over their success.

But Peterborough chairman MacAnthony insists he doesn’t think Man City will “have as big a problem as everyone thinks” and will prove that they are innocent of the allegations.

When asked if he has a ‘hunch’ on what the outcome will be, MacAnthony said on talkSPORT : “I think Man City will win.”

Pushed on why he thinks that, he added: “Because I think they’ll have the best in business. I think they are probably very confident about what they are doing. They’ve won previously when they’ve had issues and bans and stuff, they’ve had them overturned.

“We see all the stuff written about them, we see the accusations, it’s great newspaper fodder, they make great headlines and I just say: let it play out legally, let’s see what the decision is in the end and I don’t think Man City will have as big a problem as everyone thinks, because they see 115 charges.”

When asked what should happen to them if Man City are found guilty , MacAnthony replied: “I don’t know what the rule is that applies to those charges. I don’t know the punishment. I don’t know what the precedent is in the past. Is it two points per charge?

“I’m sure the media will have headlines like ‘relegation’, ‘banned’, ‘league titles from the past given back’…it’s all nonsense in my opinion. I don’t think you can change the past – I know in Italy that happened – but I’m not a fan of that.

“Everyone in football tries to manipulate, I’m not saying Man City have done this, let me speak for the EFL. Everyone, with all the wage caps, with all the rules and everything else, try to work around the system to sign players and make them as strong as possible.

“I’m not saying anyone is breaking the law or breaking any rules but there is definitely rule-bending going on, it’s no different in the Premier League. And I just think Man City, who they are and what they’ve done over the last decade, are an easy target, great media talk and I just say: let it play out, let’s see what happens at the very end.”

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When asked whether the outcome of the FFP case will have an impact on Guardiola’s future at the Etihad Stadium, MacAnthony continued: “I can’t speak for Pep but I think he’s done six years, maybe more, oh eight years, which is probably a long old period for him.

“He might be like Jurgen [Klopp] and he might after another year, and winning X amount in a row, go ‘you know what? I need a year off’.

“This game is relentless and I can understand what Jurgen Klopp did. It’s hard enough being an owner, being a manager, being in that rat race for the last four years since Covid, it is relentless.

“You talk about mental health, you talk about health, physically, mentally, these people get run through the mill. So I can onloy imagine what Pep’s body and mind is feeling like and maybe he does need some time off.

“If I was Man City I would be like ‘Pep, take a year off, we’ll stick your number two in charge for a year and you can come back after a nice breather…I would have done that with Jurgen.”