From the long financial corridors of English football to the United States national-team camp, Mauricio Pochettino has delivered a sharp verdict on Manchester City’s case: whatever punishment follows, he believes the damage to the competition cannot be undone.
Manchester City have been found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges brought against them over alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules. A sanction has not yet been imposed, following a legal process that ran for years amid a vast and complex body of documentation, but Pochettino said the passage of time itself makes any remedy incomplete.
“It is very difficult to know what the punishment should be,” the Argentina-born United States coach said. “Whatever they decide, it is impossible to go back in time. A great deal of damage has been done.”
Pochettino’s comments carry the perspective of a manager who spent much of his coaching career in England, notably with Tottenham. He questioned how clubs which complied with the league’s regulations were expected to compete with teams able to operate beyond them, and asked why the controls did not intervene sooner.
“Many clubs followed the rules and some did not,” he said. “Perhaps they believed a punishment would never arrive. It is fair to ask where the checks were while the rules were being broken in that way. That is what strikes me most.”
Tottenham experience informs Pochettino’s criticism
The former Spurs manager recalled the constraints placed on his own side during a period when Tottenham regularly finished in the top four, challenged for honours and reached the Champions League semi-finals. He pointed to an 18-month spell in which the club could not sign a player while trying to remain competitive with teams above them.
“Was all of that because we had to adjust to the Premier League’s financial controls?” Pochettino said. “They were very strict with us, but much more lenient with others. That is why I say the whole situation is very strange.”
The scale of City’s eventual punishment remains unresolved. Possible measures include financial penalties, a points deduction, match suspensions, limits on player registrations and, at the most severe end, expulsion from the competition. For Pochettino, however, no decision can fully restore the circumstances in which rival clubs spent years competing.
