Ex-Man City star Akanji worried about losing titles despite Walker's confident blast

Manuel Akanji has admitted he is concerned that his achievements at Manchester City could be taken away from him in the wake of the club being found guilty of breaking the Premier League's financial rules.

An independent commission ruled that City were guilty of 114 of the 115 charges levelled at them by the Premier League. They were found to have used "sham" contracts to disguise funding worth over £830million between 2009 and 2018.

City are still steadfastly protesting their innocence and have launched an appeal. The club have adopted a siege mentality, reassuring their players and staff that they have 'irrefutable evidence' that will clear their name.

As revealed by Mirror Football last week, former manager Pep Guardiola will attend City's Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday as a show of support. But comments from Akanji, who played for the club between 2022 and 2025, helping them to win two Premier League titles, the Champions League and the FA Cup, has hinted at the mood among City alumni.

"I’m still in touch with a few players, but I don’t know any more than you do. We were told to stay calm, that they had everything under control and nothing major had happened," the Swiss international, who now plays for Inter Milan, said in an interview with Nau.

"I trust the people in charge at Man City that that’s the case. I hope I don’t lose my titles. That would be a bit of a shame. But I’m only seeing it all in the news, too. Who knows what else they might dig up."

The commission has the power to relegate City, impose unlimited fines, points deductions or transfer bans, but is very unlikely to retrospectively strip the club of its titles during the nine-year period. Akanji joined City in 2022, four years after the period the Premier League's allegations relate to.

City chief executive Ferran Soriano addressed club employees in a video after the verdict, claiming the verdict was based on "a single false accusation" which supports "the Premier League's conspiracy theory" against them.

His message promised to "take care of our extended City family" and that appears to have resonated with Walker. The veteran defender played for City from 2017 to 2025 - a period which included six Premier League titles, the Champions League, two FA Cups, the Club World Cup and four Carabao Cups.

Walker told talkSPORT: “Obviously it doesn’t look great. I know it’s in an appeal stage so, for me to start commenting on the legal action and everything like that, probably it’s not going to do myself justice or anyone involved in it.

“But, at a personal level, I can say the lads, we spent many and many a great year celebrating many trophies and everything like that and that’s something that, whatever happens, they can’t take away from us because we’ve experienced them nights.

“So, whatever will be, will be, and it’s just down to the appeal now and what goes from there.”