{"id":864191,"date":"2026-09-29T01:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864191\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T01:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T01:56:11","slug":"pochettino-manchester-city-verdicts-show-fans-lived-through-an-era-of-deception-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864191\/","title":{"rendered":"Pochettino: Manchester City verdicts show fans \u2018lived through an era of deception\u2019 | USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

US men\u2019s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino<\/a> expressed dismay at news of Manchester City being found guilty of widespread financial improprieties on Monday, saying that fans \u201clived through a period of deception\u201d because of City\u2019s rule breaches.<\/p>\n

The Guardian and other outlets have reported that Manchester City have been found guilty<\/a> by the Premier League of violating the vast majority of 115 different charges concerning violations of financial rules between 2009 and 2018.<\/p>\n

Pochettino was the manager of Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> for five seasons, from 2014 to 2019, and of Southampton before that from 2013 to 2014. He also took charge of Chelsea for a single season in 2023-24.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere were the controls?\u201d Pochettino said in Spanish, when asked by the Guardian for his thoughts on the guilty verdicts. \u201cThat\u2019s what gets my attention. Where were the controls?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I remember being at Southampton, then Tottenham \u2013 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].<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a team like us, Tottenham, was fighting for titles with those above us and every year in the top four, getting to the semi-finals of Champions League without being able to do a transfer for 18 months, all because we needed to get used to the [Premier League financial controls]? They were so strict with us but also so lenient with others. Because of that, that\u2019s why I say: it\u2019s all very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manchester City\u2019s issues started when a 2018 investigation by German paper Der Spiegel showed potential financial improprieties, citing leaked internal documents, outlining a host of potential violations occurring over a 10-year span between 2008 and 2018.<\/p>\n

City \u2013 who have always denied the allegations<\/a> \u2013 were subsequently charged by the Premier League in 2023 of falsifying details of their finances, with some of those issues centering around payments to players and coaches. They have also been accused of violating Uefa\u2019s financial fair play regulations, and the Premier League\u2019s own profit and sustainability rules (PSRs).<\/p>\n

Uefa made an attempt at disciplining City in 2020, banning the club from Uefa-sanctioned competition like the Champions League and fining them \u20ac30m. That punishment was later overturned by the court for arbitration of sport; some of the violations, they said, occurred too long ago to be punished and others weren\u2019t adequately proven.<\/p>\n

City are widely expected to appeal against the Premier League\u2019s verdicts in the next two weeks and the ensuing legal proceedings could drag out for an extended period.<\/p>\n

When asked what he feels a potential punishment should be, Pochettino again expressed his disappointment at the overall situation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhatever punishment [they choose], it\u2019s impossible to turn back time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s done a lot of damage, more than anything the guidelines. At the end of the day many clubs followed the rules and some didn\u2019t. Maybe they thought that the punishment [wouldn\u2019t come for a lot of years] \u2013 what are they going to do? An economic punishment? Docking points? It\u2019s really hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad,\u201d Pochettino continued. \u201cIt is a huge sadness. At the end of the day we get into a situation where what got celebrated wasn\u2019t that real, what seemed good maybe wasn\u2019t so good, what didn\u2019t look good maybe was good but couldn\u2019t be good because of what happened. At the end of the day, we went through something where sporting fairness didn\u2019t exist. So, how do you repair everything that was damaged because of that, if it\u2019s true all of the 114 rules that were broken, we\u2019ve lived through a period of deception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Pochettino offered his thoughts on the punishment handed down to Chelsea<\/a>, who were found guilty of similar violations on a much smaller scale. Chelsea were Premier League champions in 2016-17, with Pochettino\u2019s Spurs finishing in second place. The club was later fined heavily by the Premier League for undisclosed payments to players, coaches and other involved parties. The club was also hit with a nine-month academy transfer ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should win one title, one Premier League,\u201d Pochettino told UK-based media last week. \u201cThey were punished, they admitted, so that\u2019s it? The title should be for the team that was second \u2026 It\u2019s true that we didn\u2019t compete with the same rules. OK, now we can say that they scored goals, they won games, and like this. OK, that\u2019s it, but it\u2019s completely fair to say that we didn\u2019t compete before the start of the season with the same card.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe with the same rules, if we apply the same things, maybe we could\u2019ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals,\u201d said Pochettino. \u201cIt\u2019s not me complaining. It\u2019s the truth. If they admitted they broke the rules, the Premier League title was for the second best team.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the match with Chile, the US will face Mexico on 3 October and Canada on 6 October in Phoenix, Arizona and St Paul, Minnesota, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US men\u2019s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino expressed dismay at news of Manchester City being found guilty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-864191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}