Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp takes legal action over Man City’s xenophobic claim

Jurgen Klopp will take legal action after accusations of xenophobia against Manchester City’s owners thanks to comments he made before Liverpool’s clash with City at the weekend.

Klopp last Friday had made comments about the spending power of the champions compared with rival clubs but said yesterday his comments were “misunderstood”.

The Times reported that City felt Klopp had inflamed tensions ahead of the match, during which Pep Guardiola was pelted with coins from fans.

Accusations of xenophobia also emerged from the City camp but Klopp is baffled by that suggestion, with the Telegraph reporting that Liverpool will take legal action.

At the suggestion that his comments could have been seen as xenophobic, Klopp said: ‘I don’t feel, in this specific case, I don’t feel it at all. I know myself. And you cannot hit with something which is miles away from my personality.

‘If I was – I cannot remember the word, wow! – like this I would hate it. I would hate myself for being like this.

‘I have said a lot of times things that were a little bit open for misunderstanding. I know that. It was not intentional, just sometimes you say things and you think, “Oh my God! It can be interpreted like this?” But this is not one of these moments. Absolutely.’

Klopp has stood by his remarks, suggesting he was making an observation about the three clubs’ unlimited resources compared to their rivals rather than criticising the trio.

In the same press conference last Friday he had described Pep Guardiola as the best manager, City as the best team, and Erling Haaland as the best striker in the world. He believes any offence taken would have simply been a misunderstanding.

‘That’s the life of people who speak in public,’ he said. ‘So it’s not the first time that I’ve been misunderstood. I know what I thought when I said it. If somebody misunderstands that – or wants to misunderstand that – I cannot change that.

‘I have to be careful, I’ve known that since years ago. I’m not always careful, I realise that as well, from time to time – I just answer and say what I think.

‘I will try to do that [say what I think] in the future as well because usually it’s never my aim to blame anybody or whatever, just talk about things – that I think are not that important in life, actually.

‘But I think I say what I know about it, or how I judge it, or how I see it. So that’s it, I cannot change that. Nothing the things were made of [by Manchester City] were my intention, to be honest.’