The Premier League rejected Manchester City and Chelsea's request to start next season later due to the Club World Cup – Guardiola

Pep Guardiola says the Premier League has rejected a request from Manchester City and Chelsea to postpone their opening games of next season.

Both clubs will take part in the inaugural Fifa Club World Cup, scheduled to take place in the USA from June 15th to July 13th.

City have asked the league to give their players more time to recover and while there is no formal decision yet, the club does not expect the decision to go their way.

That is certainly the interpretation of Guardiola, who revealed the request was made as he spoke about the impact of the new competition on his players' fitness this season and beyond.

“The Premier League did not allow us and Chelsea to postpone the first few games to help us recover – thank you very much,” he said. “So if they don't reschedule these games, it's going to be like, 'Oh, what do we have to do?'.”

“I don't have an answer at the moment because I've never been there, I don't know. I would say we will make a common sense decision. We’ll see the players and the schedule.”

Guardiola also scoffed at the idea that the Premier League would give City that kind of support when asked if the club's request would be granted: “Absolutely not. Is the Premier League saying yes to us? No. Absolutely not.”

When asked for comment, the Premier League confirmed that while informal discussions had taken place, no formal request had been made, stating that this was an example of the challenges facing domestic leagues due to the restrictions imposed by FIFA would face changes made to the football calendar.

(Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)