Manchester United\u2019s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has chosen to maintain a safe distance from the war of words embroiling Manchester City’s successful appeal against their two-year ban from the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola had indignantly pointed a finger at City\u2019s Premier League rivals of \u201cwhispering\u201d behind their backs on Tuesday, name-checking Manchester United\u00a0in an impassioned defence of his club\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n
Guardiola\u2019s comments followed immediately in the wake of those by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his Tottenham counterpart Jose Mourinho, who described the CAS verdict as \u201cnot a good day for football\u201d and a \u201cdisgrace\u201d respectively.<\/p>\n
But Solskjaer has chosen to keep a wide berth away from that territory on Wednesday morning, albeit while offering a note of support for UEFA\u2019s controversial Financial Fair Play regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think other people can debate that and they\u2019ll want to debate that,\u201d Solskjaer said of the Cas verdict. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s my job. My job\u2019s to make sure that we focus on next game and just do the right things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Financial Fair Play, I think it was brought in to keep football and football clubs financially sustainable and that\u2019s important. They also give us rules to adhere to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re focusing on. Let other people discuss what\u2019s right and wrong and what\u2019s happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola had gone on the offensive on Tuesday, demanding apologies from those who accused City of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
“[I’m] incredibly happy for the decision, which shows what all the people said about the club was not true and to defend on the pitch what we won on the pitch,” he said.<\/p>\n
“What we have done is right. Jose and all the managers should know that we were damaged. We should be apologised (to).<\/p>\n
“Like I said many times, if we did something wrong we would accept the decision of Uefa and Cas because we did something wrong. We can defend ourselves. We have the right to defend ourselves when we believe what we have done is correct.”<\/p>\n
CAS had concluded that City “did not disguise equity funding as sponsorship contributions”, adding that “most of the alleged breaches… were either not established or time-barred.”<\/p>\n
The court is expected to publish the full reasoning behind their verdict in the coming days.<\/p>\n
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