Manchester City are appealing their ban against a two-year ban from UEFA after being found to have broken Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
European football's governing body announced last week that Pep Guardiola's side will be suspended for the 2020/21 and 21/22 seasons, and must pay a €30million fine after breaking FFP rules and failing to co-operate with UEFA during their investigation.
City CEO Ferran Soriano stated on Wednesday that the club have not broken any rules, and is hoping that their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport will find in their favour before the start of the summer.
However, he also added one thing that fans of teams like Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United will surely not countenance.
Soriano says that he hopes the end of the current process will mean an end to an "undertone" that has dogged City - that anything they do is based solely on money.
"All we're looking for is a proper adjudication in an independent and impartial body that is going to take the time and look at all the evidence, and look at this without preconception," he told the club's official website.
"I'm also looking for the end of this process to maybe put an end to this undertone that we are hearing all the time that anything that we do, any result that we get is based only on money and not on talent or effort.
"You know, the hundreds of people that work in this club know this is not true, that it is about effort and talent. So maybe at the end, this is an opportunity."
While Soriano is correct that it takes more than just money to get to where City have, he'd be naive to think that people will forget about the money pumped into the club since the takeover in 2008.
City have spent well over £1.6billion on player transfers since the Abu Dhabi United Group took over (according to Transfermarkt), let alone the money spent on facilities, wages and staff.
The work City have done - especially since Pep Guardiola's arrival - has been phenomenal, with record breaking seasons in the league.
But trying to pretend it is not completely rooted in the vast sums of money that has allowed them to progress ahead of the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham is folly, and something fans will struggle to take seriously.
