Manchester City Women maintain ‘business as usual’ after club found guilty of financial breaches

Manchester City Women are preparing for their Women’s Champions League meeting with Real Madrid as normal despite the club being found guilty of all charges relating to historic Premier League financial breaches.

Manchester City Women players and staff during training

‘Business as usual’

City manager Andree Jeglertz said the team had not altered its routine ahead of Thursday’s match, despite repeated questions about the potential impact of the Premier League verdict on the women’s side.

“It’s business as usual,” Jeglertz said. “We have been training like normal and doing the work we can do to affect the game. We haven’t changed anything, we have just kept on doing everything we normally do.”

The club’s press officer intervened after seven questions about the charges were put to Jeglertz. Asked whether he had received assurances that the women’s team would not be affected, he declined to comment further.

Different regulations govern the women’s game

The Premier League found Manchester City guilty of charges covering alleged breaches between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. The league said the club had arranged “sham contracts” with commercial partners as part of a scheme that disguised more than £830m in secret funding.

Manchester City continue to deny wrongdoing and have until 2 October to submit an appeal. The charges relate to Premier League rules rather than the financial regulations governing the Women’s Super League. The breaches also occurred while the women’s competition was under the Football Association’s jurisdiction.

BBC Sport understands that there is no active investigation into Manchester City by WSL Football. There has also been no indication that WSL opponents have raised concerns about whether the alleged conduct benefited the women’s team.

Players focus on Real Madrid tie

Defender Jade Rose said the players had received “the same messaging the public has” from the club, but stressed that their attention remained on football.

“I’m just here to talk about the football. That’s what we’re focusing on,” Rose said.

City’s open training session showed no obvious disruption, with Therese Sjogran, the club’s director of women’s football, in attendance as usual. Jeglertz also said the surrounding media attention had not made it more difficult to prepare.

“We can’t talk about anything else and we don’t need to talk about anything else at the moment,” he said.

City, the defending WSL champions, have won their opening four league matches and sit top of the table with 12 points. They drew their opening Champions League league-phase match against Bayern Munich and host Real Madrid on Thursday at 20:00 BST.