Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said he has a clear conscience over his time at former club Manchester City, which has been found guilty of serious breaches of Premier League financial rules. An independent commission found that between 2009/10 and 2017/18, City artificially inflated their revenue by £830m. The club have lodged an appeal and deny all wrongdoing.
The investigation covered two years in which Arteta was working as assistant to manager Pep Guardiola. In an otherwise guarded press conference, the Arsenal boss answered "yes" when asked if he had a clear conscience. Arteta, who this week signed a new four-year contract as Arsenal manager, faced a string of questions over the verdict but repeatedly said he would not comment further until the outcome of City's appeal is known.
"The thing is that this has been going for various years," he said. "The process is still not finished, so it's very difficult to express how I feel because it's not resolved. When it's resolved, I can talk with clarity and tell you exactly how I feel."
Arteta spent three-and-a-half seasons working with Guardiola, including the 2016/17 and 2017/18 campaigns, when City won back-to-back Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups, before leaving to take charge of Arsenal in 2019. The commission also found City artificially inflated their sponsorship income by £264.3m across those two seasons, a period in which the club signed players including John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Kyle Walker.
Arteta refused to comment when asked if his memories of working at City had been tainted. Asked about winning the Premier League title with Arsenal before the verdict, he said he felt proud and very emotional about how the title was won.
Source: Sky Sports Champions League · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing