Jose Mourinho on Manchester City’s appeal: ‘I would rather laugh about it’
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has refused to treat it’s legal fight with the Premier League as a crisis lecture. Asked about the club’s appeal against a guilty verdict on serious financial breaches, he said he would rather laugh, and warned that the file may still be open when he and the people following it are no longer around.
Details about the charges against Manchester City
An independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges linked to Premier League financial rules between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, and of three of four charges for failing to cooperate with the investigation. City have denied wrongdoing and lodged an appeal. The Premier League said the club used “sham” commercial agreements to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than 900 million pounds ($1.19 billion) over nearly a decade, producing inaccurate accounts and breaches of spending rules.
Why Jose Mourinho says he would rather laugh
Jose Mourinho managed Manchester United from 2016 to 2018 and finished second behind Pep Guardiola’s City in 2017-18. Speaking to Italy’s Corriere dello Sport, he kept the tone light and the timeline long.
“I would rather laugh about it,” Mourinho said. “I think we will eventually get an ending, but we are both in our 60s, and we’ll need to be lucky enough to still be around when the final verdict arrives. There will be a verdict, then appeals, then more appeals.”
The appeal will be heard in private. It is still unclear whether any sanction would be imposed before that hearing, or whether a punishment would take effect at once. Manchester City, chasing a sixth straight league win, sit top of the Premier League with 15 points from five matches and travel to Liverpool on Sunday.
What the commission ruled
The charges cover the years before Manchester City’s title run under Pep Guardiola became the story of the division. The league’s case is that sponsorship income was inflated and costs were understated, so the published numbers did not match the spending rules clubs were meant to follow. City’s position has not shifted: the club says it did nothing wrong and will contest the findings.
That leaves the table and the hearing on different clocks. Manchester City can keep winning while lawyers argue over a decade-old file. Jose Mourinho’s point is aimed at that gap. A first verdict is not the end if appeals follow appeals.
The City file will test that patience more than any touchline call this weekend. A guilty finding is on the record. An appeal is under way. Mourinho answers that he would rather laugh about it than pretend the last word is close.
