Jose Mourinho offered a typically dry assessment of the time being taken to resolve City’s financial rules case, joking that he might be 80 before the final verdict arrives.
The former Chelsea and Manchester United manager was asked about the proceedings during an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport and decided that humour was preferable to another lengthy discussion about the allegations.
“I’d rather have a bit of a laugh about it,” Mourinho said, before suggesting he would need some luck to witness the conclusion of a case that has already occupied English football for several years.
“Now a ruling will come, then an appeal… I’ll be 80!”
Mourinho finds humour in lengthy legal process
The remarks, subsequently shared by Fabrizio Romano and reported by Goal, follow the independent commission’s decision to find City guilty of 114 of the 115 financial rules charges brought by the Premier League.
City have appealed against those findings and continue to dispute the allegations. The outcome of that appeal and any eventual sanctions have yet to be determined.
Mourinho’s joke was around the duration of the proceedings rather than the substance of the commission’s findings, and his suggestion that the case might continue for another two decades was plainly tongue-in-cheek.
The Premier League began investigating City’s finances in 2018, with formal charges following in February 2023. The commission’s verdict was published last month, more than eight years after the investigation began.
Mourinho has enjoyed plenty of exchanges with City over the years, particularly during his spells managing Chelsea and Manchester United.
On this occasion, though, he was content to leave the arguments about the case to others and make a joke, Mourinho-style.
