Pochettino says City verdict shows fans 'lived through a period of deception'
Mauricio Pochettino, the United States men's national team head coach, told The Guardian on Monday he was dismayed that Manchester City had been found guilty by the Premier League of widespread financial improprieties and said supporters had “lived through a period of deception.”
The Premier League has concluded City breached the vast majority of 115 charges relating to financial rules between 2009 and 2018, according to reports cited by The Guardian and others. The issue traces back to a 2018 investigation by Der Spiegel based on leaked internal documents; City have consistently denied the allegations and were charged by the Premier League in 2023 with falsifying details of their finances. The club have also faced accusations under UEFA’s financial fair play rules and the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, and a 2020 UEFA sanction — a ban from UEFA competition and a €30m fine — was later overturned by the court for arbitration of sport on partly procedural grounds. City are widely expected to appeal the Premier League’s verdicts in the next two weeks, with legal proceedings likely to follow.
Pochettino, who managed Southampton in 2013-14, Tottenham Hotspur from 2014 to 2019 and Chelsea for the 2023-24 season, posed a direct question about oversight when asked by The Guardian. “Where were the controls?” he said in Spanish.
Reflecting on his time at Tottenham, Pochettino recalled the club’s financial constraints during the stadium build and contrasted that experience with the City verdicts. “If I remember being at Southampton, then Tottenham – I remember building [the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium] and not having the economic possibility of a transfer for 18 months. I think we were the only team in the history of the Premier League with 18 months without [making a transfer],” he said, adding: “They were so strict with us but also so lenient with others. Because of that, that’s why I say: it’s all very strange.”
Asked about suitable sanctions, Pochettino warned that punishment could not undo past effects. “Whatever punishment [they choose], it’s impossible to turn back time,” he said. “It’s done a lot of damage, more than anything the guidelines. At the end of the day many clubs followed the rules and some didn’t. Maybe they thought that the punishment [wouldn’t come for a lot of years] – what are they going to do? An economic punishment? Docking points? It’s really hard.”
Pochettino described the situation as profoundly upsetting and questioned how damaged competitive integrity can be repaired. “It’s sad,” Pochettino continued. “It is a huge sadness. At the end of the day we get into a situation where what got celebrated wasn’t that real, what seemed good maybe wasn’t so good, what didn’t look good maybe was good but couldn’t be good because of what happened. At the end of the day, we went through something where sporting fairness didn’t exist. So, how do you repair everything that was damaged because of that, if it’s true all of the 114 rules that were broken, we’ve lived through a period of deception.”
Pochettino also commented last week on Chelsea’s disciplinary case, which he said involved similar breaches on a smaller scale; Chelsea were Premier League champions in 2016-17 with his Tottenham side finishing second. Chelsea were later fined heavily by the Premier League and handed a nine-month academy transfer ban. “We should win one title, one Premier League,” Pochettino told UK-based media. “They were punished, they admitted, so that’s it? The title should be for the team that was second … It’s true that we didn’t compete with the same rules. OK, now we can say that they scored goals, they won games, and like this. OK, that’s it, but it’s completely fair to say that we didn’t compete before the start of the season with the same card.” He added: “Maybe with the same rules, if we apply the same things, maybe we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals. It’s not me complaining. It’s the truth. If they admitted they broke the rules, the Premier League title was for the second best team.”
After the match with Chile, the United States will play Mexico on 3 October in Phoenix, Arizona and Canada on 6 October in St Paul, Minnesota, fixtures that Pochettino’s squad faces next.