Furious letter hits out at Pep Guardiola over Man City coach’s ‘shameful’ remarks on Gaza battle after synagogue assault: ‘He merely would not care that British Jews had been murdered just a few miles from the Etihad’

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been accused of ‘putting the lives of British Jews in danger’ by making ‘shameful’ remarks about the Gaza conflict.

The Spaniard is also accused of failing to properly mark the loss of lives in October’s terror attack on a synagogue in the city.

The claims about Guardiola’s conduct in the wake of the attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue have been made in a letter to the club by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region – which compares his conduct unfavourably with that of his club’s arch-rivals Manchester United.

Two Jewish people were killed and three left in a serious condition after a car-ramming and stabbing attack outside the synagogue in October.

Attacker Jihad Al-Shamie was shot dead by police.

The following month, speaking about the conflict in Gaza, Guardiola said: ‘The world has left Palestine alone. We’ve done absolutely nothing. 

‘They’re not at fault for being born there. We’ve all allowed them [Israel] to destroy an entire people. The damage is already done and it’s irreparable.’

In further incendiary remarks, he said: ‘There, for a very long time now, we have allowed the destruction of an entire people because they say, “don’t say genocide”.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (pictured) has been accused of making ‘shameful’ remarks about the Gaza conflict

Two Jewish people were killed as a result of the attack carried out by Jihad Al-Shamie (pictured) on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in October

‘I am absolutely taking the side of Palestine – the innocent people who are murdered daily, because the man drawing this up decides what he decides, because if he is not capable of solving it through a ceasefire, gesture, the symbolism you mentioned, and only through force.’

Now, in a letter to City’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the Jewish Representative Council argues that ‘at a time when our community is grieving and we have received solidarity from many of Manchester’s prominent institutions, you have offered absolutely no support’, which ‘is in complete contrast to Manchester United Football Club who pushed for a minute’s silence, something your club would not have done had Brentford not already had one planned as a mark of respect for someone connected with their football club’.

Referring directly to Guardiola, whose team plays at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium, the letter says: ‘He has not uttered a word of solidarity or support, meaning it is our strongly held belief that he simply does not care that British Jews were murdered a few miles from the Etihad Stadium.’

The letter – which raises the prospect that Guardiola might have breached Football Association regulations on political messaging – also accuses him of making ‘generalisations and offensive sweeping comments about the Middle East conflict that are not only inaccurate but put the lives of British Jews in Manchester, including those who support your football club, in danger’.

It adds that it was ‘at best naive or at worst unforgivable that in the aftermath of a terrorist attack targeting British Jews, he felt it appropriate to speak in such an inflammatory manner given his silence on all other global issues and the atrocities committed on October 7 [by Hamas terrorists on Israel in 2023].’

Armed police officers talk to members of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on October 2, 2025, following the attack

Guardiola has courted controversy before by airing his political views. In 2018, he was fined £20,000 by the Football Association for ‘wearing a political message’ pitchside – a yellow ribbon to support imprisoned politicians in his native Catalonia, having being warned he was in breach of regulations – and has joined protesters in Barcelona calling for independence in the region.

Manchester City is majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour, the vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates who has an estimated personal fortune of more than £17 billion.

Manchester City did not respond to a request for comment.