Pep Guardiola believes the president of La Liga is “jealous” of Manchester City after Javier Tebas criticised the decision to overturn the club’s two-year Champions League ban.
In a heated press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Guardiola took aim at City’s rival Premier League clubs following comments by his Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur counterparts.
Jurgen Klopp described Monday as “a bad day for football” following the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s verdict, while Jose Mourinho said the panel’s decision was “disgraceful”.
Guardiola said other clubs should apologise to City, but saved his most vitriolic criticism for Tebas, after the La Liga official questioned whether Cas was fit and proper.
“We have to reassess whether the Cas is the appropriate body to which to appeal institutional decisions in football,” he said. “Switzerland is a country with a great history of arbitration, the Cas is not up to standard.”
In response, Guardiola questioned Tebas’s legal expertise and said he should focus on Spanish football, rather than the Premier League.
“He’s another one, this guy, Senor Tebas must be so jealous of the Premier League and English football,” the City manager said.
“He’s an incredible legal expert, from what I see. So next time maybe we’re going to ask them which court judges will have to go to.
“He has to be a little bit worried and concerned about La Liga and focus on them. But normally these kind of people when the sentence is good for him it’s perfect – like what happens many times in Spain now – but when the sentence is against the problem is for others.
“Yeah, we’ll be in the Champions League next season, Senor Tebas, because what we did, we did it properly."
Tebas is a lawyer by trade, though was appointed as president of La Liga in 2013. City will restart their current Champions League campaign against Real Madrid next month, with a 2-1 first-leg lead in their round of 16 tie.
