Could history be rewritten? Guardiola, Man City and the 115 charges

During 10 seasons, Pep Guardiola has led Manchester City to 17 major trophies - and 20 in all

If, as expected, Pep Guardiola leavesManchester Cityat the end of this season, he will do so as one of the most successful. influential managers in Premier League history.

City have been the dominant force in the English game during his 10 seasons in charge, a tenure in which they won the Premier League six times (including a record four in a row), as well as the Champions League. a historic Treble.

But to what extent does the unprecedented catalogue of more than 100 charges of alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules cast a shadow over Guardiola's time in charge?

With City having always denied wrongdoing. the answer will only become clear when the outcome of the case is finally revealed.

An independent commission is yet to publish a ruling almost a year and a half after a disciplinary hearing concluded.

Whether the saga has played a role in the timing ofGuardiola's expected departure,. whether he wanted to leave City before the result was known, is unclear.

But until that time. it is inevitable that questions will be asked about how exactly City achieved the trophy-laden era it has enjoyed since the takeover of the club by billionaire Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Mansour - the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates - in 2008.

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BBC sports editor Dan Roan explains Manchester City charges

The 115 charges relate largely to a range ofalleged financial rule breaches by Citybetween 2009 and 2018.

While there is no suggestion that Guardiola was aware of any alleged wrongdoing. there is a two-year overlap with his tenure at Etihad Stadium, which began in the summer of 2016.

The charges relate to the:

alleged failure to provide accurate financial information, including details for player and manager payments, from 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons

alleged failure to comply with Uefa's financial fair play (FFP) rules from 2013-14 to 2017-18

alleged breaches of Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) from 2015-16 to 2017-18.

City also face multiple charges that they failed to co-operate with the Premier League's investigation between December 2018. February 2023.

As manager, Guardiola has not been involved with the legal process. But he has not been able to claim that these charges only apply to a period before his arrival.

The charges are thought to relate to allegations first made in 2018 by German media outlet Der Spiegel. which published leaked internal City emails.

It claimed that the documents showed the club had inflated sponsorship revenue from state-owned airline Etihad. state-controlled telecoms firm Etisalat, by disguising direct investment from its holding company - Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) - as sponsorship income, by channelling money through the companies' accounts.

This, it was alleged, was a means of getting around FFP rules introduced by Uefa in 2011,. PSR brought in by the Premier League in 2012, two similar systems of spending control designed to limit clubs' losses. City and the companies denied wrongdoing.

There then followed further allegations of misreporting financial information centred on documents that claimed to show secret 'off-the-books' payments to previous manager Roberto Mancini via consultancy fees from a club in Abu Dhabi,. giving players more money than was officially going through the accounts so that recorded spending was less than it actually was. Mancini denied any wrongdoing.

In short, City effectively stand accused of subverting Premier League rules that clubs had agreed to comply with,. of distorting the competition over multiple seasons.

City - who have always denied they are state-owned - said the emails were obtained illegally. were an "attempt to damage the club's reputation", insisting they were innocent.

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If City are cleared of the more serious charges, Guardiola's legacy will be viewed as secure.

But if the club are found to have broken financial rules, many will conclude that the wrongdoing helped City to spend more money on better players,. to lay the foundations which Guardiola then built on to achieve so much success, culminating in the Treble triumph of 2023.

In 2024, Jose Mourinho pointedly insisted he won his three Premier League titles withChelsea"fairly. cleanly", after being asked about Guardiola making a six-finger gesture after a match, signifying the haul of titles he had won.

Mourinho also joked. he mightstill be retrospectively awarded a Premier League winners' medal,if City ended up having titles stripped from them as punishment. As manager ofManchester United, Mourinho had finished second to City in the 2017-18 season.

If City were to be found guilty, there would likely be plenty of references by rival fans to the titles that Guardiola won by just one point (overLiverpoolin both 2019. 2022) and two points (overArsenalin 2024).

Of course, if City were found guilty, it would be impossible to know if Guardiola would have won less -. how much less - if the club had adhered to the rules.

But such is the scale. seriousness of the charges, in such an event, critics will inevitably argue that his many accomplishments are tainted, even those that occurred after the period the case relates to.

In 2019. with City under investigation by Uefa,Guardiola was directly asked by BBC Sportif his legacy could be affected by the controversy.

"No, absolutely not," he replied.

However. City's chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak hasadmitted frustrationat the club's on-pitch achievements being accompanied by repeated reminders of the charges lodged against them.

Another Premier League club serve as a warning. There is now some scepticism towards the various trophiesChelseawon in the 2010s, after the club were found to have made acatalogue of secret payments to agentsover transfers, between 2011. 2018.

Even if the charges levelled at City are eventually upheld. however, many of the club's fans would no doubt argue that whatever decisions may have been made behind the scenes by some executives, they should not negate Guardiola's visionary leadership, his tactical genius or the impact he has had on the game.

"Pep Guardiola's detractors may try to argue that an asterisk should be added to the trophies he has won withManchester Citybecause the club's alleged misrepresentation of revenue. costs gave them a competitive advantage on the field," says Tim Jotischky, a reputation expert at the PHA Group.

"But. regardless of whether the club is found guilty of some or all the charges, I don't believe it will damage his legacy."

But apart from the allegations. what about the suggestion that much of City's recent success is due to the vast wealth of their Abu Dhabi owner?

For instance, just a year after Guardiola's arrival at Etihad Stadium, La Liga president Javier Tebas accused City of "financial doping" in comments theclub described as "ill-informed. in parts pure fiction".

In 2019, then-Liverpoolmanager Jurgen Klopp said City were in "fantasia land", where they could buy whoever they wanted.

Guardiola responded by saying the insinuation that City were spending their way to success "bothers me. because it's not true that we spent £200m every window."

"In an era when sovereign wealth funds. private equity have transformed the nature of football ownership,Manchester City's spending is not disproportionate compared to their closest rivals," says Jotischky.

"Guardiola's reputation rests on his wider impact, his ability to reinvent the way others thought about the game. his influence has permeated throughout the football pyramid.. it is undeniable that Guardiola's impact extends beyond trophy count."

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Back in 2019, while City were being investigated by Uefa,. in the wake of the allegations about payments to Mancini,Guardiola reacted furiouslywhen asked during a news conference following the FA Cup final if he had ever received similar payments.

Guardiola replied: "Honestly. do you think I deserve to have this type of question, the day we won the [domestic] Treble, did I receive money? Are you accusing me of receiving money?"

The journalist involved explained that he had previously asked City,. in the absence of an answer, felt he had little choice but to question the manager.

Guardiola has always backed his bosses publicly. even when, in 2020, City were given a two-year ban from European competitions by Uefa for alleged FFP breaches, a suspension that was eventually overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Two years later. Guardiola said he would walk away from City if he felt the club's hierarchy had ever lied to him. "They explain and I believe them," he said.

At times Guardiola has lavished praise on the City hierarchy,. should he have been more circumspect, especially when human rights campaigners have claimed the club is being used to 'sportswash' whatAmnesty has calledthe "deeply tarnished image" of the UAE? City have always denied suggestions the club is being used to enhance the country's reputation. But that has not prevented Guardiola from facing scrutiny forspeaking outin support of Catalan independence,. other political and humanitarian issues, while being positive about working for one of the rulers of the UAE.

"Some believe his defence of City's owners was misplaced,. it's hard to think that many employees would have acted differently if placed in the same position," says Jotischky.

In 2023, after his club had been charged by the Premier League, Guardiola accused City's rivals of pre-judging the case.

"My first thought is we're already being condemned," he said. "It's the same with Uefa, we were already condemned. The club proved we were completely innocent."

He also urged the Premier League to speed up its handling of the case. calling for a verdict "this afternoon" or "tomorrow".

The fact. City had been accused of failing to co-operate with the league's investigation did not seem to trouble him.

It was notable that Guardiola also said: "In the end. I know fairly that what we won we won on the pitch. We don't have any doubts."

In 2024, having signed a two-year contract extension,he vowedto stay at City, even if they were relegated as punishment. "People say 'what happens if we are relegated?' I will be here," he claimed.

His most recent comments on the case came in February 2025. when he said he expected to learn the outcome of a hearing, that had finished weeks earlier, "in one month".

To the frustration of many, including him too perhaps, that prediction has proved wide of the mark. More than three years since City were charged by the Premier League, the case drags on.

Since then, Guardiola has added the Treble, his sixth league title. a domestic cup double to the remarkable collection of silverware he has achieved while in Manchester.

He must now hope that a decade of Premier League history -. his part in it - does not one day need to be rewritten.

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