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Pep Guardiola does not seem to be enthused about the Club World Cup - Getty Images/Matt McNulty
Pep Guardiola has insisted Manchester City players and backroom staff will not share a slice of almost £100 million should they win the Fifa Club World Cup following their disastrous season.
The Premier League champions are in a battle to qualify for the Champions League after their dramatic slump in results before Christmas, with the FA Cup the last remaining trophy they can win and a quarter-final against Bournemouth on Sunday.
After the domestic season is over they will travel to America for the expanded Club World Cup, with the revamped tournament backed by broadcasters and sponsors to ensure the winners will receive £97 million.
But Guardiola is not expecting a bonus pool for players and staff – or a Swiss watch to commemorate the triumph – should they emerge victorious on July 13 in New Jersey.
“We don’t deserve it this season. We don’t deserve a bonus this season. Bonus, if we win, is for the club. Managers, staff, players – we don’t deserve it. Not even a watch,” said Guardiola.
The City manager has previously suggested that he will take his golf clubs to the tournament and players will not be on a strict training schedule, given the amount they have played this season with many of the squad barely having a break from last summer’s European Championship.
City have been drawn to play Wydad AC in Philadelphia, Al-Ain in Atlanta and Juventus in Orlando, with the final game against the Italians likely to be important as the runners-up in the group stage may face Real Madrid in the round of 16.
Spain midfielder Rodri has been out since September after knee surgery but is back on the training pitches and could return by the time of the tournament. “I hope, I wish,” said Guardiola. “It will be nice if he could play tomorrow, but don’t make the wrong decision and make a step back.
“It has been six months, he’s behaving really well on the pitch, conditions are different. It’s step by step, what the doctors or physios say. Not to say “Club World Cup” and then lose him again.”
Meanwhile, Kevin De Bruyne is out of contract in the summer and his terms run out mid-tournament. “It’s between the club and Kevin,” Guardiola said of the midfielder’s prospects of extending his deal to cover the Club World Cup at least.
Empty seats and silent fans: Man City supporters plot protest
Manchester City fans have planned an extraordinary protest against the club’s partnership with ticket-resale firm Viagogo, with potentially thousands of empty seats at the Etihad Stadium for the start of next week’s match against Leicester.
City have announced they are teaming up with the Viagogo marketplace but fans say the company is “legalised touting”. In an open letter to the Premier League champions, they say Viagogo “are known for regularly breaching ticketing regulations and ripping off fans”.
Fan groups 1894, Trade Union Blues and MCFC Fans Foodbank have signed the letter and set out the instructions for the protest.
“We are inviting fans to not take their seats and stay on the concourse for the first nine minutes of the match v Leicester,” the letter read. “Nine minutes [is] for the nine official third-party ticketing partners the club now has.
“We ask that if you are going to take your seat, you remain silent for the first nine minutes. This is to demonstrate that football without fans is nothing.”
The letter adds that third-party agencies selling tickets have led to away fans in home areas of the Etihad which causes safety issues. Other measures discussed by the fans’ groups include a food and merchandise boycott or withdrawing from cup-ticket schemes.
Fans’ actions have been backed by the Football Supporters’ Association, which added in a statement: “Plenty of clubs run their own in-house ticket resale platforms allowing supporters to pass on tickets to one another at face value.
“Why does any club need to engage a third party company whose only reason for existence is to push up prices and profit from matchgoers?
“It feels instinctively unfair for clubs to penalise supporters for passing on tickets at face value to friends or family members while cosying up to these companies.”
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