Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola confident squad can cope with potential Fifa transfer ban
Fifa, world football's governing body, are investigating City over the signing of young players
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Your support makes all the difference.Pep Guardiola believes that Manchester City have the talent within their first-team squad to cope with any prospective transfer ban.
Fifa, world football's governing body, are currently investigating whether City have breached regulations regarding the signing of minors.
The Premier League champions could be prohibited from signing first-team players for two transfer windows if found to have broken the rules.
Fifa handed the same punishment out to Chelsea last month. The west London club have appealed but their hopes of at least postponing the ban are diminishing.
Chelsea may need to alter their summer transfer plans accordingly, but Guardiola does not feel that City would need to do the same.
When asked whether his squad was big enough to withstand a transfer embargo, the City manager said: “Of course. It’s good, really good."
Fifa are investigating City for the signing of eight players under the age of 18 from outside the United Kingdom.
The world governing body is also looking into allegations that City broke third-party ownership rules as part of a link-up with Danish club FC Nordsjaelland.
Uefa, the Football Association and the Premier League are also carrying out separate investigations into City regarding issues such as Financial Fair Play compliance and academy player recruitment.
Guardiola has always claimed that he has total faith in his superiors at City, including director of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano, who he also worked with at Barcelona.
“I cannot say anything," he said on Friday, regarding the investigations. "I said what I said, I was clear in my opinion. The club made their statement so I don’t have any comments.
“I understand your job. I answered five or six or seven questions in the last press conference. I am not even the right guy to talk about that.
"What the club says, the process, they do it. They don’t call me and explain what they are doing. I’m concerned with my job. What will happen will happen."
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