By Adegboyega Adeleye
Former Manchester City captain Kyle Walker has insisted the club’s trophies and glory cannot be taken away from the players despite the club being found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules.
City have appealed against the recent judgment by an independent commission, which found the club guilty of financial breaches between 2009-10 and 2017-18.
Walker, who spent eight years at City from 2017 to 2025 and won the Champions League and 12 major domestic honours with the club, said the verdict “doesn’t look great” but declined to comment extensively while the appeal is ongoing.
“Obviously it doesn’t look great. I know it’s in an appeal stage so for me to start commenting on the legal action and everything like that, probably it’s not going to do myself justice or anyone involved in it,” Walker told talkSPORT.
“But, at a personal level, I can say the lads, we spent many and many a great year celebrating many trophies and everything like that and that’s something that, whatever happens, they can’t take away from us because we’ve experienced them nights.
“So, whatever will be, will be, and it’s just down to the appeal now and what goes from there.”
The independent commission concluded that more than £830 million in owner funding was used to inflate revenues and enable the club to comply with Premier League and UEFA financial rules through a series of “sham” arrangements over a nine-year period.
Manchester City have rejected the findings and maintained that the commission’s opinion contains “clear material errors of law, principle and fact”.
“The club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe,” the club said in a statement.
“The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions relating to this case.”
Walker admitted the verdict is a difficult subject for former City players, who want their achievements to be viewed as legitimate.
“It’s something that we probably don’t want to talk about because we want to be looked upon as winning them trophies, winning them the right way,” he said.
“It’s very difficult because we’ve worked very hard for them, and not just us, I look at the fans as well.
“I look at the fans that have travelled up and down the country, travelled abroad to Istanbul when we won the treble and stuff like that, and they deserve that night as well.”
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