Pep Guardiola says Manchester City gain “satisfaction” from qualifying for next season’s Champions League and not from overturning their Uefa ban.
City were given a two-year ban from European club competitions for breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, which was overturned on appeal.
City hold a 2-1 lead over Real Madrid heading into their Champions League last-16 second leg tie next month.
Boss Guardiola said they were “happy” after showing people “we were clean”.
Uefa had issued City’s ban in February after ruling the club had committed “serious breaches” of FFP regulations between 2012 and 2016.
But the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) announced the club were cleared of “disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions”.
City’s fine was cut from 30m euros (£26.9m) to 10m euros after Cas said they “failed to cooperate with Uefa authorities”.
City have already guaranteed a second-place finish behind Premier League champions Liverpool, and host bottom side Norwich in their final league game on Sunday.
“This issue is over,” said Spaniard Guardiola. “Uefa accused us of being not fair in our process.
“The rumours will always be there. They were always there in the past. It is not a situation that is now. It happened a long time ago.
“But we are happy because we showed to the world that we were clean and we have done properly what people asked. We know people talk about it. But it doesn’t give us any more satisfaction.
“The satisfaction comes from on the pitch because we qualified for the Champions League next season. Liverpool and ourselves have done it.
“The other ones know how difficult qualification is from the Premier League. That is our satisfaction.”
City have never been past the semi-finals of the Champions League, while Guardiola last won the competition in 2011 while in charge of Barcelona.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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