Man City Boss Pep Guardiola Clashes with FA over Yellow Ribbon

Guardiola wears the ribbon to support imprisoned politicians in Catalonia

Guardiola has been charged for ignoring two FA warnings and breaching their kit and advertising regulations.

The FA confirmed the sanction was for "wearing a political message, specifically a yellow ribbon."
Guardiola wears the ribbon to support imprisoned politicians in Catalonia, where he was born.
But Guardiola has no intention of being bullied by the FA and is expected to wear the ribbon at Sunday's high-profile Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

We understand Guardiola could also request a personal hearing to challenge the charge and is reluctant to back down.
Guardiola, who has until 5pm on March 5 to respond to the charge, was contacted by the FA in December about the issue and told to stop wearing the ribbon, but chose to ignore them.
FA bosses decided to charge him yesterday after he again wore it pitchside during City's shock FA Cup loss against Wigan at the DW Stadium on Monday night.

When asked about the ribbon back in November, Guardiola said: "If one day in prison was already too much, look how many days they've been there now."Like everybody knows, hopefully sooner or later I can stop wearing it (the ribbon).
"All the politicians that are in prison, I hope they can leave and go back home soon with their families and continue living the lives they deserve."

Guardiola will not want the ribbon row to deflect him from the task of winning his first trophy as City boss.

And he admitted he will be judged on silverware and not sexy football.
Guardiola was a huge disappointment in his first season in English football after finishing it empty handed.

City have produced some of the best football in Premier League history this time round to earn plaudits from around the world.
But Guardiola insists he doesn’t care about this and will only be remembered for how many trophies he wins.

Guardiola, who has landed 22 major titles since becoming a boss, said: “We have to lift titles to give more value to what we have done.

“In the beginning, in August, we said the same - that we would be judged on how many titles we win.
“At he five or six big clubs, it’s always the same, how many titles do you win?
“It is a club that needs to grow up, grow up and win titles and hopefully this weekend we will have the first one.

“I would like to see my team how they have been for most of the season. It’s in front of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium in London.

“We have to be who we are, don’t have regrets after the game.”