Guardiola admits he does not know why Manchester City obstructed Uefa

Pep Guardiola has admitted he does not know why Manchester City obstructed Uefa’s investigation into their financial fair play practices, for which the club were fined €10m (£9m) by the court of arbitration for sport.

Although City had Uefa’s two-year ban from European competition quashed on Monday, Cas upheld the governing body’s ruling that the club failed to cooperate with the investigation. It reduced Uefa’s €30m fine.

Related: Manchester City decision does not mean end of financial fair play | David Conn

City and Guardiola had been confident Cas would rule in the club’s favour. Given this the manager was asked why City did not do more to help Uefa’s investigation and allow the strongest prospect of being found not guilty.

“I cannot answer you because I don’t know,” the manager replied. “You are asking about something that the lawyers could explain better than me. But we did not do what they said.”

Guardiola claimed the expunging of the ban was “a good day for football” and that Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal were uncomfortable at City being in the elite.

Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, had described Cas’s decision as bad for football and Tottenham’s José Mourinho said it was a “disgrace”, querying why City were fined if not guilty. Guardiola said of the comments: “José and other managers should know: we were damaged, we should be apologised to. We have the right to defend ourselves when we believe what we have done is correct. Three independent judges said this. It was a good day for football as we play with the same rules as all the clubs in Europe.

“Liverpool, United and Arsenal are not comfortable [about us] being here [in the elite]. But we deserve to be here – we don’t have to ask permission to be there.”

Guardiola admitted City’s reputation had been dented. “We were damaged,” he said. “The people say we cheated and were lying – and many times. The presumption of innocence wasn’t there.

“It would be nice [for the innuendo to stop] but I don’t think so. What happened in recent years, how many times people came to our club to whisper about us, I would love it to finish.

“If you do not agree, knock on the door and speak to our chairman and chief executive – don’t go whispering. We are going to do this – seven, eight clubs, doing this.”

This last comment referred to a letter sent by Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester United, Arsenal, Wolves, Leicester, Burnley and Chelsea in March to Cas, asking that the appeal be heard before next season.

Guardiola was asked whether rival clubs were jealous of City. “Listen, a lot of clubs invested,” he said. “[Manchester] United, Arsenal, in periods before, win the leagues and invest more money than the other ones. When Chelsea start to win Premier Leagues, they invest more money than the other ones.

“I’m a good manager but I don’t win titles if I don’t have good players and good players are expensive, but all the clubs spend a lot of money. Barcelona spend a lot of money, [Real] Madrid spend a lot of money, English teams spend a lot of money.”

Guardiola was asked whether Cas’s decision meant he was more likely to extend his contract beyond next summer. In answering he took aim at Arsène Wenger, who as Arsenal’s manager was outspoken about “financial doping” in football.

“This club is incredibly solid with Pep and without Pep,” Guardiola said. “So without me, when I leave – I don’t know when that will be – the structure of the club [will allow it to still] grow and be solid, this is the most important thing.

“We have a lot of money but we wanted Alexis Sánchez [in January 2018] and we could not afford it, we wanted Harry Maguire [last summer] and we could not afford it; we could not pay like United paid. We spend in the last decade more than in the past, yes, but Arsène Wenger – the guy who defends perfectly financial fair play – you know that Manchester City was correct with what we have done.

“We spent a lot of money to be there. Because being a good manager like I am, I’m not good enough without good players. No way. I am humble enough to accept that without my players I am nothing, zero. That’s why I need my players, and for that I need clubs who are financially strong – like a lot of clubs – to do it.”