Fresh from signing a new contract at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola reiterated his intention to stay with the Premier League champions even if they are punished with relegation for breaching financial rules.
City faces more than 100 charges ranging over a nine-year period when the club was trying to establish itself as the biggest force in English soccer. Sanctions could be as extreme as expulsion from the league and a verdict could come early next year.
City denies the charges and Guardiola, who has agreed to a two-year extension tying him to the club until 2027, said he looks forward to rebuilding the team if it was to drop down the leagues.
“I said six months ago, one year ago, when all the clubs accused us of doing something wrong,” Guardiola said. "(I was asked), ‘What happens if you got relegated?’ I will be here.
“The next year, we'll come up ... I don't know the position or the (division) they are going to bring us, but we are going to come up and come up. We're going to come back to the Premier League. I knew it then and I feel it now.”
Asked why he chose to extend his contract by two years instead of just one, Guardiola responded with a smile: “For the weather.”
Adopting a more serious tone, Guardiola said it was to prevent speculation from building over his future early next season and stressed that there are no guarantees he stays until the end of his latest contract.
“I don't want next season — September, October, November — (for people to say), ‘It’s the last year of Pep, have to extend again,'” Guardiola said. "That was the main reason. I don't want to be in that position.
“At the end, the contract is there. I would like to stay two more years but I know if the results are not good, I will not be two years.”
Guardiola, who arrived at City in 2016, hasn’t just firmly secured his team as the dominant force in the Premier League. He has also taken the English game to a new level, winning an unprecedented four league titles in a row and once leading City to 100 points in a league campaign in one of his eight full seasons at Etihad Stadium.
His decision to stay in English soccer was welcomed by rival Premier League coaches on Friday, even if it made their chances of winning trophies even harder.
“It’s good news for City,” Liverpool manager Arne Slot said, “and it’s good news for the league.”
Slot’s Liverpool leads City by five points after 11 games and looks to be the likeliest team to prevent Guardiola from winning five straight titles.
“It’s interesting for us managers to keep facing one of the best managers football has ever had,” Slot said.
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said Guardiola’s tactics have “revolutionized how a lot of teams play” in England.
“It’s good for the English game that he is still here and he will continue to develop and evolve his style and people will continue to potentially follow that,” Howe said.
“Of course from the competition side, it keeps the Premier League the best in the world.”
City striker Erling Haaland was delighted to hear Guardiola would be continuing.
“He’s the best manager in the world,” Haaland said in an interview with British broadcaster Sky Sports, “and probably the best manager who ever existed.”
Guardiola will look to end City’s run of four straight losses — his worst streak of results as a coach — when he leads the team into a home match against Tottenham on Saturday.
Guardiola said Thursday that City’s poor run was a big reason why he signed a new deal, with some questioning whether the club's era of dominance was coming to an end.
“I felt I could not leave now. Maybe the four defeats was why,” Guardiola told City’s website.
“I think we deserve, after four defeats in a row, to bounce back and try to turn the situation. I think we deserve to be here. I am not arrogant to say, but it’s the truth.”
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Norway's Erling Braut Haaland celebrates scoring his side's first goal, during the Nations League soccer match, between Norway and Kazakhstan at Ullevaal Stadium, in Oslo, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Terje Pedersen/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe looks on during the Premier League match between Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United, at the City Ground stadium, Nottingham, England, Sunday Nov. 10, 2024. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Liverpool's manager Arne Slot takes his place on the touchline before an English Premier League soccer match against Aston Villa at the Anfield stadium in Liverpool, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A new draft of a deal on cash to curb and adapt to climate change released Friday afternoon at the United Nations climate summit pledged $250 billion by 2035 from wealthy countries to poorer ones. The amount pleases the countries who will be paying, but not those on the receiving end.
The amount is more than double the previous goal of $100 billion a year set 15 years ago, but it's less than a quarter of the number requested by developing nations struck hardest by extreme weather. But rich nations say the number is about the limit of what they can do, say it's realistic and a stretch for democracies back home to stomach.
It struck a sour note for developing countries, which see conferences like this one as their biggest hope to pressure rich nations because they can't attend meetings of the world's biggest economies.
"Our expectations were low, but this is a slap in the face,” said Mohamed Adow, from Power Shift Africa. “No developing country will fall for this. They have angered and offended the developing world.”
The proposal came down from the top, the presidency of U.N. climate talks — called COP29 — in Baku, Azerbaijan. Delegations from numerous countries, analysts and advocates were kept in the dark about the draft until it dropped more than a half a day later than promised, prompting grumblings about how this conference was being run.
“These texts form a balanced and streamlined package,” the Presidency said in a statement. “The COP29 Presidency urges parties to study this text intently, to pave the way towards consensus, on the few options remaining.”
This proposal, which is friendly to the viewpoint of Saudi Arabia, is not a take-it-or-leave-it option, but likely only the first of two or even three proposals, said Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, a veteran negotiator.
“We’re in for a long night and maybe two nights before we actually reach agreement on this,” Hare said.
Just like last year's initial proposal, which was soundly rejected, this plan is “empty” on what climate analysts call “mitigation” or efforts to reduce emissions from or completely get off coal, oil and natural gas, Hare said.
The frustration and disappointment at the proposed $250 billion figure was palpable on Friday afternoon.
“It is a disgrace that despite full awareness of the devastating climate crises afflicting developing nations and the staggering costs of climate action — amounting to trillions — developed nations have only proposed a meagre $250 billion per year," said Harjeet Singh of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
That amount, which goes through the year 2035, is basically the old $100 billion year goal with 6% annual inflation, said Vaibhav Chaturvedi a climate policy analyst with New Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
Experts put the need at $1.3 trillion for developing countries to cover damages resulting from extreme weather, help those nations adapt to a warming planet and wean themselves from fossil fuels, with more generated by each country internally.
The amount in any deal reached at COP negotiations — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater climate spending. But much of that means loans for countries drowning in debt.
Singh said the proposed sum — which includes loans and lacks a commitment to grant-based finance — adds “insult to injury.”
Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said “the EU and the U.S. and other developed countries cannot claim to be committed to the Paris Agreement while putting forward such amounts” of money.
Countries reached the Paris Agreement in 2015, pledging to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world is now at 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the U.N.
Switzerland environment minister Albert Rösti said it was important that the climate finance number is realistic.
“I think a deal with a high number that will never be realistic, that will never be paid… will be much worse than no deal,” he said.
The United States' delegation offered a similar warning.
“It has been a significant lift over the past decade to meet the prior, smaller goal" of $100 billion, said a senior U.S. official. “$250 billion will require even more ambition and extraordinary reach" and will need to be supported by private finance, multilateral development banks — which are large international banks funded by taxpayer dollars — and other sources of finance, the official said.
A lack of a bigger number from European nations and the U.S. means that the “deal is clearly moving toward the direction of China playing a more prominent role in helping other global south countries,” said Li Shou of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
German delegation sources said it will be important to be in touch with China and other industrialized nations as negotiations press on into the evening.
Analysts said the proposed deal is the start of what could likely be more money.
“This can be a good down payment that will allow for good climate action in developing countries,” said Melanie Robinson, global climate program director at the World Resources Institute. “There is scope for this to go above $250 billion if contributors decides to come on board.”
Rob Moore, associate director at E3G, said that whatever figure is agreed “will need to be the start and not the end" of climate cash promises.
"If developed countries can go further they need to say so fast to make sure we get a deal at COP29,” he said.
Associated Press journalist Ahmed Hatem and Aleksandar Furtula contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
A person reads a draft of a proposed deal for curbing climate change during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, Samoa environment minister, waits outside a room at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
A draft of a proposed deal for curbing climate change sits on a table at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Albert Rosti, of Switzerland, speaks to members of the media at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, rehearses in the plenary at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
An activist displays "pay up" on his hand during a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Activists dressed as clowns participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Activists participate in a demonstration for climate justice at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
The sun rises visible behind a transmission tower during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Dion George, South Africa environment minister, left, walks past a person in a dugong costume during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
