Rodri
Role at the time: Spain captain and former Manchester City midfielder, at a Spain press conference before the match against England
Response to this claim
Manchester City said on September 29, 2026 that the club "is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League," that "a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions," and that the commission's opinion "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe."
“I think it's normal to go through these kind of situations and it's part of football today and everyone has to follow the rules and for me that's great. But they always press the confidence that they never did something wrong and we believe in that. That's the thing. Since the moment they proved wrong, we will believe the club.”
A fan channel's upload of Rodri's answers at a Spain press conference on September 25, 2026, the day before Spain's Nations League match against England at Wembley, after the first reports of the outcome. ITV Sport also aired part of the answer. The quoted words follow the spoken answer in the video.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Relative to the proposition that City used sponsorship contracts the commission described as shams, and related arrangements, to misstate its finances and circumvent the Premier League's financial rules, as the commission found, Rodri says he and his former team-mates believe the club's statement that it never did anything wrong, which endorses the club's denial. He also says that everyone has to follow the rules and, in the next sentence, which the audio renders as "Since the moment they proved wrong, we will believe the club," makes his belief depend on the club not being proved wrong. We used Mixed or conditional because the statement combines support for the club's denial with that condition. The closest competing label is Denied. He spoke before the commission's decision was published.