Harry Kane says England's full concentration is on their next Nations League game after Manchester City were found guilty of breaching financial rules. The Premier League confirmed the club has been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges for breaches of financial rules.
City strongly deny the charges and are set to appeal the decision made by an independent panel. If the appeal is unsuccessful, the club could face severe punishment, including a heavy points deduction or expulsion from the Premier League.
England squad reaction
Three City players, Marc Guehi, Nico O’Reilly and Elliot Anderson, are part of the England squad for the current international break. Both Guehi and Anderson started Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Czechia, with O’Reilly missing the game through injury.
Speaking after England’s win, Kane, who scored the second goal, revealed there had been no talk of the verdict in the dressing room. “To be honest today I didn’t even know the news literally until after the game,” said the skipper. “I’ve been off my phone all day.
“I can’t comment on it now. I’m sure in the next days it will be spoken about in a casual way. I always say when we’re here we’re with England. We have our England head on and those guys [Anderson, O'Reilly and Guehi] will deal with it obviously when they are back. From our point of view it is all about Croatia on Saturday.”
Tuchel's stance
England manager Thomas Tuchel is taking a similar stance. When asked if he had to ‘look after’ the City players in the squad, he said: “I did not actually because I am just focused on everything we have to deal with here and to prepare the team. I did not talk to them about the issue and I will not comment on it.
“I think Marc today was absolutely excellent after a tough match against Spain. The reaction was on the highest level and Elliot Anderson had a good match as well.”
Premier League statement
In the statement, released just a few hours before England’s match, the Premier League said: "The independent Commission found that Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
“The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club. As part of the scheme, further ‘sham’ arrangements, funded by ADUG, were entered into to enable the club to record lower operating expenses than it actually incurred, as well as a ‘sham’ circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the club’s players’ image rights, that was funded by ADUG.
"The purpose of these schemes was found to have been to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules. The consequence of this, as the Commission found, was that the club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators."
