Former Man Utd & Chelsea Star Fires Hilarious Three-Word Dig at Man City Over Charges

Former Chelsea and Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata offered a playful reaction to news that Manchester City had been found guilty of over 100 violations of the Premier League's financial rules. The veteran who repeatedly fell short of England's top-flight title during his playing days cheekily asked: "Or have I?"

Reports emerged on Friday suggesting the lengthy wait for the outcome of a tribunal that has stretched on for more than three years is drawing to a close. City are believed to have been found guilty of 114 out of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League. This could result in a broad range of penalties, including retrospective measures covering the seasons in question.

Among the most significant violations in the case against City are allegations of misreported finances between 2009 and 2018, which purportedly enabled the club to artificially boost their revenues and evade scrutiny from the Premier League at the time. Up to 35 of the charges also relate to a failure to cooperate with the league's investigations into these alleged violations from 2018–23.

In the view of many, every piece of silverware collected by the club since the first alleged rule breach has been tarnished, with even the seasons not directly within the window of scrutiny being inseparably tied to the foundations laid by what came before.

Mata, as he was eager to highlight on ITV Sport during coverage of England's loss to Spain on Saturday, was at Manchester United when they finished as runners-up to City in the Premier League on two occasions.

"That actually directly affects me," the 2010 World Cup winner reflected. "I've been fortunate enough to play many matches and lift some trophies, but I've never won the Premier League ... or have I?"

"Twice," he added following a timely prompt from fellow pundit Ian Wright. "Because twice we finished second in those seasons. I'm not sure what will happen, but I think they [Wright and Roy Keane] are right. Whoever has been cheating deserves to be punished."

Man City Face Questions From Much Larger Forces Than Mata

Beyond the jabs from former players (and U.S. mayors), the most pressing questions directed at Manchester City will come from their fellow Premier League clubs.

Mata's Manchester United were not the only side denied glory during City's era of questionable dominance. Liverpool and later Arsenal have also finished as runners-up to the Abu Dhabi-backed club, which additionally denied rivals Champions League qualification while potentially affecting the relegation battles of other teams.

"The Champions League in those days was worth a minimum of £30 million," football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport when assessing the Pandora's Box unlocked by this ruling. "I think by the time we reached 2018, it was probably worth £60 million or £70 million, and that's just in prize money.

"On top of that, clubs could claim for lost gate receipts and lost sponsor bonuses. This is highly unlikely, but it's certainly being discussed. Players receive bonuses for qualifying for the Champions League. Those bonuses, if you speak to people connected to the top clubs, are typically around 25%.

"An average salary back then, if you go back to 2012, would probably have been around £80,000 or £90,000 a week. Twenty-five percent of that amounts to four or five million pounds a year. That's how the financial implications stack up."

Why Man City May Not Have the Record Books Rewritten

The far-reaching consequences of this verdict are almost impossible to quantify, though that may well become the task facing the courts if rival clubs pursue compensation claims against City. Whether it will actually reach that point, however, remains an entirely separate question.

For starters, only four clubs reserved the right to seek compensation from Manchester City in the event of a guilty verdict before the statute of limitations deadline. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have all undergone significant structural changes since that decision was made in September 2024, with several former City employees now holding influential roles at those rival clubs.

BBC Sport has reported that even among these four clubs, there is "little appetite" for history to be revised. The short-term — and arguably hollow — satisfaction of retroactively claiming a title from eight years ago could easily be outweighed by longer-lasting, more damaging consequences for the reputation of the league as a whole.

Serie A has yet to fully recover from the Calciopoli scandal of 2006, when Juventus had two titles stripped following a match-fixing conviction. As Mata himself acknowledged, City may have allegedly manipulated their finances, but "they won on the pitch."

"It was very difficult to play against them," he admitted. Whether his former club and their rivals take the same view remains to be seen.