Pep Guardiola left the Etihad in May 2026 with 20 trophies collected in ten years, the club’s most decorated manager and, in the words of those he beat, the best in the world at what he did. Four months later, an independent commission has told the Premier League that most of what Manchester City did to fund the era he presided over was against the rules.
The panel found the club guilty on 114 of the 115 charges the league brought in February 2023, in a ruling first reported by The Athletic on 25 September. The single not-proven allegation was, on the reporting, one of the most serious.
The 115 charges break down into 54 counts of inaccurate financial information, 14 of inaccurate player and manager payment details, five of UEFA rule violations, seven of profitability and sustainability breaches, and 35 of failing to cooperate with the investigation. The financial charges cover the seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18. The non-cooperation charges cover the years from 2018 onwards.
No punishment has been announced. Manchester City intend to appeal before an independent appeal board with the authority to uphold, vary or overturn the finding.
Read also: Maresca’s January transfer plans emerge after Man City FFP verdict
The trophies the ruling covers
Guardiola’s record at City is not in dispute as a matter of record. Six Premier League titles in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24. A Champions League in 2022-23, the club’s first. Three FA Cups. Five League Cups. A UEFA Super Cup. A FIFA Club World Cup. Only Sir Alex Ferguson has assembled more silverware as a Premier League manager.
What is in dispute is how those trophies should be remembered. English broadsheet columnists have argued for years that an asterisk would eventually be attached to City’s era, and Guardiola himself had to keep denying the suggestion as it built. Since Friday, the denial has become harder to sustain.
‘I trust them’
Guardiola’s line through the years of investigation, charges and hearings barely moved.
“I trust them. I spoke with them and trust how they behave and how they did,” he said in the final months of his time at the club, in a comment reported by Yahoo Sports.
Read also: Who leaves first? Haaland, Guehi, Anderson and Semenyo
He said much the same in 2020, after City overturned a UEFA Financial Fair Play ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and again on the day of the 2019 FA Cup final, when he was asked whether his own wages might be part of the problem.
“Honestly, do you think I deserve to have this type of question? The day we won the treble, did I receive money?”
Guardiola has never acknowledged personal knowledge of any financial wrongdoing at City.
Klopp’s defence of Guardiola
The strongest argument for Guardiola comes from a rival dugout. Ahead of his final match as Liverpool manager in May 2024, Jürgen Klopp was asked directly about the 115 charges.
Read also: Gordon: 'I don't think I was fully respected' before moving to Barcelona
“Everybody knows about the 115 charges, but I have no clue what that means. I only know the number,” Klopp said, in comments carried widely at the time.
“No matter what has transpired at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola is the best manager in the world. If you put any other manager in that club, they don’t win the league four times in a row.”
Guardiola’s City won four consecutive Premier League titles, the first side in the history of English top-flight football to do so.
The counter is that the players and the wage bill that made those four-in-a-row possible are precisely what the commission has now found were, in large part, funded outside the rules.
Read also: FIFA and UEFA go to war in court over Gianni Infantino
Ambassador role at CFG
Guardiola has not walked away from Manchester City altogether. He was named a global ambassador for the City Football Group on his departure, advising the group’s clubs and working on specific projects. Enzo Maresca, briefly his assistant during the 2018-19 treble season, replaced him in the dugout on a three-year deal announced on 29 June 2026.
Sanctions from the guilty finding could run from a fine to points deductions, transfer bans or, in the most extreme case, expulsion from the Premier League. Manchester City have said their appeal will be lodged.
Read also: Hamilton dares Baku fans to design a better F1 track
