MANCHESTER CITY are on collision course with the Premier League again — after the champs’ plea for a DELAYED start to next season was rejected.
City wanted their first two games of the 2025-26 season postponed to help them recover from playing in Fifa’s expanded four-week summer Club World Cup in America.
But City boss Pep Guardiola declared: “In the end, the Premier League has not allowed us to postpone the first two games for our recovery. Thank you so much!”
The final of the revamped 32-team tournament, which also features Chelsea, takes place on July 13 — less than a month before the start of the next Prem season.
Asked if he felt stars would be exhausted after the tournament, Guardiola added: “It’s going to happen for sure. It depends if we’re in the last stages of the FA Cup.
“I don’t know if we will play more games than our Treble year before the States.”
Relations between City and Prem chiefs are already strained after the club were charged with 115 breaches of the League’s financial rules. City deny all the charges.
Guardiola added: “For the first and second games, the club asked the Premier League to postpone them one, two or three weeks.
“That would be one or two more weeks of holiday after the Club World Cup. But it’s absolutely not allowed.
“The Premier League say ‘yes’ to us? Absolutely not.”
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The Prem have yet to comment but sources indicated there were only initial, informal discussions — and no formal request from City.
Prem boss Richard Masters is aware of the challenges domestic leagues will face as a result of Fifa’s expanded calendar.
Players’ unions, worried about burnout, have taken legal action against Fifa over the Club World Cup.
And City’s crocked ace Rodri warned players were ready to strike to protect their welfare.
Fifa chief Gianni Infantino insists the tournament will go ahead as planned.
Guardiola’s City contract is up next summer, so he may not be around to see it — but he believes it will only become clear then how tired players are.
He said: “They won’t postpone these games, so that will be the moment of, ‘Oh, what do we do?’
“I don’t have an answer right now. We will see how the players are, the schedule, then we are going to decide.”
