Why Man City have been fined £3m for Pep Guardiola’s team talks

Robin Bairner

• 22 Nov 2025 12:01 CST
• 3 min read

News

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has cost his side more than £3 million because of his half-time team talks – and the Premier League has warned the Catalan that this figure will grow is he does not meet their expectations.

Guardiola’s side have been fined that astronomical fee over the course of the last two seasons for delaying the kick-off to the second half of their matches.

The Telegraph reports that last season, the Cityzens were slapped with a £1m fine due to the manager’s lengthy half-time discussions. The longest of these saw the second half of one match delayed by 2 minutes and 24 seconds.

This was an improvement on the previous season, after which City were presented with a £2.09m bill for delaying the start of the second half on an astonishing 22 occasions.

The Premier League has argued that these delays undermine their attempts to set the organisational bar of the competition to the “highest possible professional standard”.

Guardiola hits back: The singers do it all the time in the Champions League!

Guardiola was forced to rearrange his Friday press conference to 9am as Premier League rules do not allow such media activities to take place after a 1:30pm cut-off.

It sparked a grumble from the Man City boss, who told the press: “We are training later and if we train at 12 until 1.30, I cannot be here [at the press conference] in time. The Premier League don’t allow me to speak to the media at 2pm. The club said if I don’t start by 2pm they will fine me or fine the club.

“We paid a lot of money as I’m late at half-time, but when we played in the Champions League final, they had a show before the game, and they are always late. They have to fine the singers!

“Sometimes I arrive one minute later but the rules are the rules. The Premier League is impeccable for that.”

Man City face Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday as they attempt to close the gap on Arsenal to a single point before the Gunners tackle Tottenham on Sunday. And if that means Guardiola’s team talk at half-time runs long, the manager is unlikely to be concerned.

The FootballTransfers app

Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.

The FootballTransfers app is available in the Apple App Store. Download here:

•App Store