Klopp plays down 'parade' comments after Man City charges verdict and retains respect for Guardiola

MUNICH (AP) — Jurgen Klopp once said he'd arrange his own parade if his former Liverpool team was ever awarded any Premier League titles stripped from great rival Manchester City.

It appears his stance has softened.

Klopp, now Germany coach, was asked to comment on the explosive verdict published Tuesday that found City guilty of all the serious financial charges brought by the Premier League relating to 2009-18, when City was building a squad that would later go on to dominate English soccer — often at Liverpool's expense.

“I know I once said something that I’d come if there was ever a parade," Klopp told a news conference late Wednesday, "but it doesn’t feel like that now.

"I don’t feel like I need to have my bus parade. I can wait and stay totally relaxed.”

Klopp won the Premier League once with Liverpool — in the 2019-20 season — and finished second to Pep Guardiola's City teams by one point in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons after memorable title races that raised the bar in terms of points earned and the standard of football played.

Klopp said his respect for Guardiola, who was at City from 2016 until leaving this summer, hadn't changed.

“My respect for Pep Guardiola and the football that City played in the time when we played against each other, what they played on the field, the opponents they were at the top level, is much too high for me to say anything now," Klopp said. "If there are some punishments handed down, then it’s obviously not anything to do with me so I’ll just wait. I’m completely OK about what happened and what we achieved.”

Klopp had adopted a more jokey tone in January 2025 when he was asked how he would respond to City being stripped of its titles in the event of being found to have broken Premier League rules.

Speaking at a time when he was head of global soccer at Red Bull, Klopp said: "If it would happen, I told all the people who wanted to, ‘Just book a flight to Mallorca. I will buy the beer!’ We’d have our own parade in my garden.”

Klopp's latest comments came ahead of Germany's match against Serbia in Munich on Thursday, when he’ll aim to avoid the unwanted record of being first coach to go winless in their first three games with Germany's men's national team.

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