Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak admits the “disruption” caused by the Blues’ emergence as a dominant force in world football has led to the club becoming an easy target for haters.
Nobody at the Etihad Stadium is overly concerned by that, though, and intend to continue going about their business.
Criticism has been aimed in City’s direction ever since Sheikh Mansour took ownership in 2008 and started ploughing billions of pounds into redevelopment on and off the field.
His investment has been rewarded with four Premier League titles and a number of domestic cup successes, while Champions League glory remains the ultimate target for all concerned.
Pep Guardiola’s side will be chasing down that trophy again in 2020-21, with a two-year European ban for alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play regulations having been lifted on appeal.
A ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport which removed those sanctions did not go down well with some, with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp questioning the call, but Al Mubarak maintains that the Blues did nothing wrong and have merely attracted jealousy and envy from rivals.
He told CityTV of the whispers: “I’m not surprised. Football has taught me a lot and one of the most important things I’ve learned is never to be surprised.
“In terms of the whispering, one thing I’ve never done is talk about other clubs’ business. It’s not for me, and it’s not for this club – we’re bigger than this, and we just won’t do it.
“They can say whatever they want to say, I’m going to focus on talking about our business. At the end of the day, I understand – there are people who don’t like us, there are clubs that don’t like us.
“I understand – it’s a competition, sport is very competitive, and what this team has done, what this organisation has done is to disrupt football, in the way it was played and conducted over the last 12 years.
“We have disrupted that, and always when you do such a disruption, you’re going to have a lot of people who don’t agree with you.
“That’s the nature of the beast. It won’t change the way we run things, we are just going to keep looking forwards.”
Al Mubarak added on the FFP fight, which proved to be an unwelcome distraction for City as they surrendered Premier League and FA Cup crowns in 2020 while also exiting continental competition at the quarter-final stage: “I’ve always been relaxed about it because I’m confident in what we’ve done and confident that in a good process, and a fair process, the truth will prevail.
“What I was most concerned about was the distraction this was putting upon all of us, and the team specifically.
“At the end of the day, all I really care about is going back to doing what we do best, which is playing football. That’s the focus – playing football, running our business and pushing forward.
“It’s about having that focus and not really having any distractions. That’s the most important thing I’m happy with right now, that we can keep the distraction behind us and go back to focusing on what we do best.”