Jürgen Klopp rejects claims he fuelled tensions before Manchester City game

Jürgen Klopp has rejected claims his comments on the financial power of Gulf state-owned clubs fuelled tensions between Liverpool and Manchester City on Sunday.

Liverpool’s 1-0 win over the Premier League champions was quickly overshadowed by off-field controversies with coins thrown at Pep Guardiola, City fans chanting and writing graffiti in relation to the Hillsborough and Heysel disasters and the visiting team coach being damaged as it left Anfield. The acrimonious fallout extended to anonymous allegations that Klopp’s pre-match comments, about Liverpool being unable to compete with three clubs who can “do what they want” financially, were inflammatory and connected to the unsavoury events at Anfield.

But Klopp, who has been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association for his red card on Sunday, said: “That is the life of people who speak in public. It is not the first time I am misunderstood. I know what I thought when I said it. If someone misunderstands that, or wants to misunderstand that, I cannot change that.

“Do I have to be careful? I have known for years that I am not always careful. I realise as well from time to time that I just answer and say what I think. I try to do that in the future as well because usually it is never my aim to blame anybody or whatever, I just talk about things that I think are not that important in life actually. I say what I know about it, how I judge it or how I see it. I cannot change that. Nothing of the things that were made of it were my intention.”

City have not condemned the chants from their supporters at Anfield. Asked about that silence, and an anonymous allegation that his comments about Gulf state-owned clubs could be construed as xenophobic, the