Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola raised the prospect Friday of soccer authorities punishing the Premier League champions over attempts to circumvent financial fair play rules.
City is leaving Guardiola to field questions about the leaked internal correspondence published by European media outlets, while executives decline comment.
The club has not disputed the authenticity of internal messages showing how it used companies linked to the Abu Dhabi ownership to boost revenue in an attempt to curb losses and comply with UEFA regulations.
"If there's something wrong we'll be punished," Guardiola said at a news conference ahead of Sunday's derby against Manchester United.
City, which has been owned by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour for a decade, was punished by UEFA in 2014 for breaching the "Financial Fair Play" program.
The settlement agreement eventually saw the club only forfeit 20 million euros (USD 23 million) in Champions League prize money. UEFA this week has not said how aware it was of City's schemes, reported by German magazine Der Spiegel, to hide expenses and evade monitoring of spending on players.
"At the end, UEFA, FIFA, English federation has to say if we were wrong," Guardiola said.
"If we were wrong (we) will accept it but I hear what my club said to me and I trust a lot of them."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content