Mourinho jokes that luck will keep him and City alive as appeal looms

José Mourinho, the Real Madrid head coach, returned to the spotlight on Tuesday with a wry assessment of the protracted Manchester City Premier League financial case. Speaking to Italy’s Corriere dello Sport, he joked that he and the club, both over sixty, will need luck to still be present when the final verdict is finally issued.

Mourinho's tongue‑in‑cheek interview

"Prefiro rir um pouco," the Portuguese manager said, adding that he expects a final decision but that "we two, who have already passed sixty, will have to be lucky enough to still be here when the verdict comes out." He noted that he will be eighty years old by the time the process concludes.

The first ruling on the case emerged in September, nearly two years after the original hearing, when an independent commission confirmed several serious financial breaches by Manchester City. The panel found that the club used fictitious or inappropriate contracts to inflate revenue and cut costs by more than £900 million across the period under review.

Premier League's findings and appeal

The commission also concluded that City submitted incorrect financial information and concealed the true state of its accounts from auditors and regulators, while proving three of four accusations relating to a lack of cooperation. The September decision did not end the saga, and City lodged an appeal on 1 October, contesting the findings as containing material errors of fact, principle and law.

The appeal will be heard by a new three‑member commission, with proceedings conducted privately and confidentially until a result can be disclosed. Any eventual sanctions will be considered separately from the determination of the accusations.

Mourinho's past digs at City

The case originally began in February 2023 when the Premier League presented more than a hundred accusations covering nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18, including alleged misreporting of sponsorship revenue and cost figures. Mourinho has previously weighed in on City‑related matters, notably after the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a two‑year UEFA ban in 2020, saying, "If Manchester City is not guilty, they should not pay a single pound; if they are guilty, they should be banned."

His relationship with the club resurfaced in 2024 while he was still managing Fenerbahçe, when he suggested that Manchester United could be awarded the 2017/18 English title retroactively if City were stripped of it.