Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has distanced himself from the fallout surrounding Manchester City’s financial rules case, saying his respect for Pep Guardiola and the quality of their fierce Premier League rivalry is too great for him to speculate about the club’s potential punishment.
An independent commission found City guilty Tuesday of serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations covering nine seasons between 2009-10 and 2017-18.
The commission found that the club used sham commercial agreements to artificially inflate revenue and reduce costs by more than 900 million ($1.2 billion), while also finding that City breached its duty to cooperate with the league’s investigation.
City have denied wrongdoing and said they intend to appeal the findings. The club has until Friday to lodge an appeal, while any sanctions will be decided at a separate hearing. The Premier League said possible sanctions under its rules include fines, points deductions and other sporting penalties.
Klopp, who managed Liverpool from 2015 until 2024, was asked about the case Wednesday ahead of Germany’s Nations League match against Serbia.
“I haven't given it much thought, even though I've seen it of course,” Klopp said.
The German had previously joked that he would attend a parade if Liverpool were retrospectively awarded Premier League titles after finishing narrowly behind City. Liverpool missed out to City by a single point in both the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons.
Klopp now says he no longer sees the situation that way.
“I also know what I said about it in the past and how if there's ever a parade I'll be there, but it doesn't feel like that anymore,” he said.
His position, he added, is shaped by the respect he developed for Guardiola and the City teams that repeatedly pushed Liverpool to the limit.
“My respect for Pep Guardiola and the football played at City during the time we played against each other, plus what an opponent they proved to be for us at the very highest level, is far too great for me to be able to say anything now,” Klopp said.
The rivalry between Klopp's Liverpool and Guardiola's City produced two of the closest title races in recent Premier League history. City finished with 98 points to Liverpool's 97 in 2018-19, then edged Liverpool 93-92 three seasons later.
Liverpool eventually won the league in 2019-20, as well as the Champions League in 2019, during Klopp's nine-year tenure. City, meanwhile, established themselves as the dominant domestic force during Guardiola's time at the club.
Klopp said he remained satisfied with what Liverpool accomplished during that period and had no desire to view their achievements through the lens of a potential retrospective decision.
“Should any sanctions be imposed, I naturally have nothing to do with it anyway, and that's why I'm waiting to see how things pan out,” he said.
The former Liverpool manager also pointed to the length of the case and the likelihood of further legal proceedings, saying there was little point in preparing for an outcome that has not yet been determined.
“I'm completely fine with what's happened and what we've achieved,” Klopp said. “We battled it out on the pitch, and I can't say anything about the rest of it because I don't know exactly what it's all about. To be honest, I'm not particularly interested in it either.”
The commission's findings do not represent the end of the case. City can challenge the verdict through the Premier League's appeal process, while the question of sanctions remains unresolved. The league said the sanction hearing will be private and confidential until its outcome can be published.
