Manchester City’s guilty verdict for financial breaches has revived Jürgen Klopp’s 2024 prediction that he would join a parade if the club were stripped of their Premier League titles.
An independent commission found the Etihad club guilty, prompting renewed attention on comments made by Klopp shortly after he stepped down as Liverpool manager.
Klopp’s response to the Manchester City guilty verdict
Asked whether he would consider himself a champion if Manchester City were deprived of their honours, Klopp responded with a characteristically light-hearted remark.
“If you organise a bus parade, I am in! How long it takes I don’t care!” he said.
The comment reflected Liverpool’s narrow failures in two of the closest title races of the Premier League era. Klopp’s side finished one point behind Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in both the 2018/19 and 2021/22 campaigns.
Liverpool collected 97 points in 2018/19 but finished second, while their 92-point total in 2021/22 again left them runners-up. They did win the title in 2019/20 after recording 99 points, finishing 18 points clear.
Liverpool’s potential 2018/19 title recognition
If governing bodies were to retroactively void or nullify Manchester City’s results from the 2018/19 season, Liverpool’s campaign could be rewritten in the record books.
Stripping City’s match outcomes would leave Liverpool as undefeated Premier League champions for that season, alongside their Champions League triumph. That would elevate the campaign into one of the most significant single-season achievements in football history.
