Manchester City have been banned from the Champions League for the next two season and have been slapped with a £25million fine by UEFA.
As reported by the Guardian, the reigning Premier League champions were found to have seriously misled European football’s governing body and broken financial fair play rules.
The same report claims that the Citizens will seek to appeal the decision at the earliest opportunity, but we hope the European governing body stands firm.
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But now Jurgen Klopp has weighed in on the matter. In a post-match interview after Liverpool beat Norwich in the Premier League, the boss was asked about the matter.
As expected, the German half-dodged the question by saying he’s just a manager, but did admit that he feels sorry for Pep Guardiola and City’s players.
“I am a football coach, and I can only speak about football,” he’s quoted as saying by This Is Anfield. “What Pep and Man City did since I was in England is exceptional. All the rest, I have no idea what happened or who did what.”
Klopp does recognise the severity of the situation though, as he explains that UEFA would not go as far as to ban a club from the Champions League for two years for something trivial.
“I can imagine that it’s difficult for the sports people to understand,” he continued. “You believe the people you work with, obviously somebody sees it completely different. I really feel for Pep and the players. “It’s obviously serious, or UEFA would not react like that.”
Liverpool’s victory over Norwich takes the Reds 25 points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table, just to add more insult to injury for the Citizens who will be shaken by the news.