Rodri has insisted he believes Manchester City are innocent after the club were found guilty of breaking the Premier League’s financial rules. The verdict, delivered by an independent panel, found City guilty on all but one of the 115 charges.
Rodri’s response to the verdict
Speaking on Friday evening, Rodri said: “We have faced something similar back in 2020, we’ve had a similar judicial process, a different accusation but similar process, and in the first instance we were found guilty but we believed in the club, we believed in the innocence that the club maintained and we ended up being acquitted, so I believe in the justice system and I believe in the innocence of the club.”
The 30-year-old, who joined Barcelona in the summer, also claimed he received full reassurance from City’s hierarchy that the club had not broken any Premier League rules. He added: “They always told us the confidence they had of the innocence. When you look in someone’s eyes and they’re talking in that way, we had the example in 2020 that the process was the same and in the end nothing happened.”
Charges and potential sanctions
City, who deny any wrongdoing, were initially charged in February 2023 with breaking financial rules over a nine-year period, dating from 2009 to 2018. The charges include 54 counts of failure to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information, 14 counts of failure to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation, 5 counts of failure to comply with UEFA’s regulations, 7 counts of breaching Premier League Profitability and Sustainability regulations, and 35 counts of failure to co-operate with Premier League investigations.
The Premier League has not yet decided on the sanctions, while City are expected to appeal the verdict. They could face a significant points deduction, a financial penalty, or even relegation.
Previous cases and Rodri’s belief
In 2024, Everton were deducted six and then two points for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules, while Nottingham Forest were deducted four points in the same year. In 2020, UEFA banned City from competing in Europe for two seasons for “overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts,” but the ban was overturned on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which also reduced City’s €30 million (£25m) fine to €10m (£8.9m).
Rodri, who won 12 major trophies including four Premier League titles during his time at City, believes the team’s success on the pitch is not related to the financial rule breaches. He said: “We always try to think in a positive day. When you live daily in that club and all the people’s hard work all these years to have all the success we had, not only Pep [Guardiola] and the players, all the structure from the owners to the guys who work daily, what we did they cannot take it out of us.”
“It’s not something paid by money, it’s effort, partnership, being shoulder to shoulder every day, and we had a lot of successful years. I can only tell you everything was deserved and I’m glad I could leave one of the best eras of English football.”
Rodri added: “Nowadays, I’m not saying it’s normal but many teams go through this kind of situation, it’s part of football today, everyone has to follow the rules but they always expressed the confidence that they never did anything wrong and we believe in that. Until the moment they are proved wrong we will believe the club. I’ve been there and I know how they work and how they co-operate, that’s what I can tell you.”
