Jurgen Klopp has acknowledged Liverpool would “need to be punished” if they are deemed to be at fault for fielding the ineligible Pedro Chirivella at MK Dons.
Chirivella was a second-half substitute in the 2-0 win at Stadium MK last week, providing the fit-again Naby Keita a rest after a tough return to action.
But it emerged on Saturday morning that the Reds were facing an investigation due to an issue with the Spaniard’s paperwork, with a question mark over his international clearance.
This comes after a failure to register Chirivella’s loan switch to Extremadura UD in time for January’s transfer deadline saw the 22-year-old sit out for his entire half-season spell.
Liverpool could be fined, forced to replay the third-round clash or be expelled from this season’s League Cup entirely—though the latter is unlikely.
And speaking on the subject in his pre-Salzburg press conference on Tuesday, Klopp stressed that his “100 percent” concern was for Chirivella.
“I cannot say too much about it, there are other people working on it in the moment,” he told reporters.
“What I can say, if it was our fault alone then probably we need to be punished for it.
“It didn’t happen on purpose or whatever, but my only real concern is the player to be 100 percent honest.
“Pedro already had the problem that he couldn’t play for half a year in Spain, and if he would not be allowed to play from now on until whenever it’s sorted, that would be, for me, the biggest problem.
“How it is in life, you make a mistake, I’m not sure that we really made a mistake, but if it’s like this, then the player should not be punished for that, 100 percent.”
Chirivella has been a regular for the Liverpool under-23s this season, and it is unclear as to whether he would be banned from turning out for Neil Critchley‘s side while an investigation is underway.
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