Man City boss Pep Guardiola bites back at Aleksander Ceferin over claim that he was SURE of the club’s FFP guilt…

Aleksander Ceferin’s assertion that Man City was guilty of FFP is met with retaliation from Man City manager Pep Guardiola, who tells the UEFA president to “wait” and “respect the procedure” on the club’s 115 Premier League charges.

Aleksander Ceferin, the president of UEFA, has come under fire from Pep Guardiola for allegedly saying he was certain that Manchester City had broken Financial Fair Play rules.

In February 2020, City received a £25 million punishment and a two-year ban from European participation after it was determined that they had violated FFP regulations and misled UEFA.

Seven months later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reversed the penalty, but City is again in danger of facing Premier League action after they were accused of 115 financial rules violations.

This week, Ceferin asserted that UEFA was correct to conclude that City had violated their own financial regulations, even though their two-year penalty was lifted.

During his Thursday afternoon press conference, Guardiola retaliated to the head of UEFA by stating that Ceferin need to “wait” and “respect” the process.

He told reporters: ‘As a lawyer that he is, the president of UEFA he should wait, and after he can do whatever he wants.

‘Whatever sentence there is about Uefa he has to respect it. He has a lot of jobs to do at Uefa, to be involved in the case with lawyers, he should respect the procedure and understand we have the right to defend ourselves. It’s the only thing I can say.’

Ceferin steadfastly maintained that UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body made the correct decision four years ago and that they will be vindicated, even if he would not discuss the Premier League’s probe.

“We acknowledge our error,” he stated to The Telegraph. If we didn’t believe we were correct, we wouldn’t make a decision.

“I think our independent body made the right decision.”

The charges that City has recently faced against Everton and Nottingham Forest have increased pressure on the Premier League to go forward with their probe.

In November of last year, the Toffees received a 10-point punishment for violating the profit and sustainability (PSR) standards of the Premier League.

They were both charged for the same offense earlier this month, so they could now be subject to another point reduction alongside Forest.

Given the status of City’s legal challenge, Ceferin expressed empathy for the frustration felt by Everton and Forest supporters.

He clarified, “I don’t want to enter into this concrete process because I don’t know what the Premier League is dealing with, but they want to know what’s going on and what the consequences are.”

“I truly don’t want to be critical or say anything of that kind.” It would not be equitable.