Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says the Treble winners should be judged on their achievements on the pitch – despite the suspicion that continues to hang over them.
Pep Guardiola's City side clinched the Treble this season, winning a first Champions League crown to add to their Premier League title and FA Cup success. But City are facing 115 charges of breaking the Premier League's Financial Fair Play rules over a nine-year period, which has seen the validity of their success called into question.
In his traditional end-of-season interview with City's club media, Al Mubarak said Guardiola and his players should be lauded for their success on the pitch, despite the allegations they face. “We’re going through the legal process,” said Al Mubarak.
“These are proceedings that take whatever time they take and when we’re done, we’ll have a conversation. I’ll give you my very blunt views, I promise you that. I have very strong views on that, but I am going to be unfortunately very restrained today.
“Of course, I mean, it’s very frustrating, because it takes so much from the great work that’s happening at this club and it’s happening not just on the football pitch. The football pitch – we talked about that, what these players have achieved this year, the Treble, is incredible.
“I hope people focus and judge them for their football and what they’re achieving on the pitch and what they’re achieving in every competition they’re in. That’s the reality.
“The club as a whole is well run, is very well run. Today, the value of this group is over six billion dollars. We’ve created so much value – we’ve brought in world class investors.
“Why? Because we have a commercial machine here that is one of the best in the world. Our executives are being targeted by the best teams in the world – always. By the way – it’s a credit to us.
“I respect that. People appreciate that we are producing – not just the best talent on the pitch, not just the best talent in the academy, not just the best talent in the group, but we’re producing some of the best executives in the world, some of the best scouts in the world, some of the best sporting staff in the world.
“And that’s a testament to the great work that this group is doing. We’re the number one football brand in the world. These are the facts; these are the facts. The club generates a tremendous revenue.
“You look at our sales in terms of what we produce, in terms of our academy, from our first team. Look at last year, I mean look at our net spend figures.
“We can go on for half an hour right now with me just giving you data in terms of net spend over the last season, net spend over the last three years, over the last five years, over the last ten years – look at every single one of them and just look at these as the facts and compare us to our competition and then people will throw at us ‘the biggest spenders’, ‘you have the biggest squad’. I wish people can just pause and ask the question and get the facts and then comment.”
