In his first public comments since Manchester City were found guilty by an independent panel of more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial regulations, the club’s star striker Erling Haaland played down a potential transfer while distancing himself from the investigation in a spiky interview. “Shall we continue?” he asked midway through a prickly rant.
Almost eight years after the investigation began and three years on from the charges being leveled against City, the Premier League triumphantly announced in September that the club had arranged “sham contracts” and made “sham agreements” to “artificially inflate” revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than $1.2 billion.
The crucial point which Haaland zoned in on over the weekend was the timeline for these breaches—which, it should be stressed, City continue to deny and are currently in the process of appealing. The Premier League only investigated the club’s accounts from 2009–18, long before Haaland moved to Manchester, as he pointed out.
“The investigation covered 2009 to 2018,” the striker coldly noted during a tense discussion with Norwegian broadcaster TV2. “In 2009, I played for Bryne U-9s. In 2010, the U-10s. In 2011, the U-11s. 2012, the U-12s, 2012, the U-13s. Shall we continue? We don’t need the whole list…” he trailed off, looking around with a raised eyebrow before deciding that, yes, we did need the whole list.
“2014, the U-14s,” he continued. “2015, the U-15s and the national team. Then the U16s, I think. In 2016, I moved up to Bryne’s first team, second team and youth team. In 2017, I went to Molde. In 2018, I was with Molde. The first team, Molde 2 and a bit with the youth team.”
Haaland has been spared any direct questions since the guilty verdict broke while exclusively talking to Viaplay, invariably Jan Åge Fjørtoft, a former international teammate of Haaland’s father. Now that he had been exposed to terrestrial channel TV2, the gloves were off—for both parties.
“This is a question I struggle to answer, because it’s a legal battle between the Premier League and Manchester City,” Haaland scoffed. “Am I supposed to answer that? I don’t really know. It’s a difficult question to answer when I don’t know that much about it.”
It remains to be seen what punishment Manchester City will face—should their appeal fail, of course. The prevailing theory is an unprecedented points deduction, potentially affecting this season and future campaigns, which could guarantee relegation. In that scenario, an exodus of City’s star talent would surely unfold, with Haaland the prime asset admired by the rest of the world. Not that he is concerned.
“To be completely honest, I’m focused on trying to perform for Manchester City,” the sage 26-year-old shrugged. “A club I signed a five-year deal with in 2022, and a new nine-and-a-half-year deal in late 2024. I think that says everything about the matter. I’m a City player and I’m incredibly happy there.”
“I understand that you want a little headline here,” Haaland added, adopting that spiky tone once again, “but as I said I signed a long-term contract in 2024.
“I’d say I made a pretty good choice by joining City in 2022. We can all agree on that. I won’t say it myself, but look at the trophies I’ve won and how I’ve developed on and off the pitch.
“I’m standing here after winning an international 3–1 [against Wales]. Things aren’t going so well in the Premier League, but we’ll try to turn that around against Fulham.”
Add us as a preferred source on Google
