Pep Guardiola has taken aim at nine English clubs for attempting to push Manchester City out of the Champions League.
Reacting to City being hit by the Premier League with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules on Monday, Guardiola vehementally defended the champions’ position.
The Spanish coach recalled the club’s predicament in 2020 and named nine rivals who supported Uefa’s attempt to banish City from the top tier of European football.
Guardiola said: “While we wait for Uefa to make a sentence against us, nine teams - Burnley, Wolves, Leicester, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal, [Manchester] United, Liverpool, Chelsea - out of the Champions League when they wanted that position.
"It is said there are not enemies or friends, just interests. They want to put it out to take that position we won on the pitch.
“They say you have to be out of the Champions League. You have to go to League One, or League Two or maybe the Conference?
“We have already been in the lower divisions. We will be back there - not a problem, just in case. We will call Paul Dickov and Mike Summerbee and we will do again.
“But they should wait. The Premier League put it there but they should wait. We are going to defend ourselves, like we did in the Uefa situation.”
And Guardiola believes the Cityzens can prove their innocence, likening their situation to the successful appeal to Cas in 2020 against a two-year ban handed out by Uefa for breaching the governing body’s FFP rules.
“The club proved they were completely innocent,” said Guardiola.
“What’s happened since Monday is the same as what happened with Uefa. We have already been condemned.
“You have to understand that 19 teams in the Premier League are accusing us without us having the ability to defend.
“I am fully convinced we will be innocent.”
