In his annual interview with CityTV, our Chairman sat down with Editor-in-Chief Chris Bailey the morning after our defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League final.
And in the second of the three-part instalment, he discussed the Club’s stance on the ESL, voicing his regret for the actions taken.
“I want to start with apologising to the fans,” he said. “I owe it.
“It was a mistake. I think in hindsight, the decision should have been from the beginning: a decision not to participate in this league.
“I absolutely regret it. The benefit of hindsight is easy right now. I regret it and you can see it: our reluctance.
“It was very difficult. It was not an easy decision to say ‘yes, no’ and ‘we’re in’ or ‘we’re out.’
“I think you can see in terms of the timing of when we actually did commit, it tells you a lot in terms of how challenging a decision it was and how much we struggled with that decision.
“But you can also see that once we recognise there was a mistake, that’s it. We needed to go out immediately.
“I’m not going to sit here and defend the reason why we did it. What I will do is: I will own it. I took a decision ultimately on this and I take full responsibility, and it was a mistake.”
Watch part two of the Chairman’s Interview above – and look out for part three on Thursday right here on ManCity.com.
