Mourinho side-steps City's Financial Fair Play row

MANCHESTER: Jose Mourinho has described the quality of Manchester City's work on the pitch as "untouchable" while refusing to get embroiled in the controversy about alleged Financial Fair Play breaches made by his rivals.

Mourinho's Manchester United side travel across the city on Sunday for a Premier League derby against their neighbours, who are two points clear at the top of the table.

However, the build-up to the match has been overshadowed by a series of Football Leaks reports claiming that Abu Dhabi-owned City artificially inflated sponsorship deals in order to comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations.

City, who were given a £49 million fine after they were found to have breached the rules in 2014, have responded by saying that they will not comment on the specific allegations.

They claim that the criticism they have faced is an "organised and clear" attempt to damage their reputation.

United manager Mourinho declined to answer in depth when asked if he thought about the allegations against City.

"It's difficult for me to answer because I focus on my job. I focus on the four lines, focus on football," Mourinho told reporters on Friday.

"So if you want to speak about their football potential we can speak, and football potential starts with investment.

"After that, of course, there is a quality of the work, of the organisation, I think that is untouchable.

"But what is behind, I cannot say. But in this moment I have only to think about football, and to think about football is to think about Manchester City as a football team there."

Mourinho has instead preferred to focus on the fighting spirit of his own players, who go into Sunday's derby having won three matches in a row, coming from a goal behind to win the past two, at Bournemouth in the Premier League and a memorable 2-1 win against Juventus in the Champions League that rolled back the years.