Mourinho mocks Manchester City's sanctions, predicts 80-year verdict

Asked on Thursday by the Corriere dello Sport, José Mourinho, Real Madrid manager, said he preferred to laugh about the financial sanctions hanging over Manchester City, while predicting that he will be eighty years old when the final judgment is delivered.

Sanctions and appeal of Manchester City

The Manchester club was found guilty of serious financial offences and announced last Friday its appeal to the English FA, citing “major consequences for the integrity of football”. City had until Friday to challenge the verdict made public by an independent commission appointed by the Premier League, and confirmed that it lodged an appeal on Thursday evening.

In its statement, Manchester City denounced “manifest and substantial errors of law, principle and fact” and claimed to possess a “complete set of irrefutable evidence” supporting its position.

Mourinho, between past and future

“I prefer to laugh,” Mourinho joked in the interview, adding: “I think we will have an outcome. There will be an end. But since I’m in my sixties, I will need a lot of luck to still be there when the final verdict is delivered. I will be 80 years old.” Although very detached from this case, he recalled his history with the club, having faced Manchester City when he was in charge of Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham between 2009 and 2018.

The club’s Emirati owner, Cheikh Mansour ben Zayed al‑Nahyan, faces, in the most severe scenario, the loss of several titles and even exclusion from the league.

The allegations against Manchester City concern an overstatement of its revenues and an underestimation of its costs by more than £900 million, i.e., over a billion euros, for the 2009‑2018 period.

Since its takeover by the Emirati fund in 2008, the club has won eight Premier League titles and the Champions League in 2023, thanks to massive investments in the transfer market.