Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has addressed the club’s guilty verdict on Premier League financial charges publicly for the first time, saying he and his players trust the club completely and remain focused on football.
An independent commission found City guilty on the overwhelming majority of more than a hundred charges covering seasons between 2009 and 2018, including findings about how some commercial arrangements were presented. City deny wrongdoing, say the judgement contains material errors and have appealed. No sporting sanction has yet been confirmed.
Maresca, who took over from Pep Guardiola in the summer, spoke to club media before City’s trip to Liverpool on Sunday. It will be the team’s first match since the verdict became public. He described the mood in the squad as positive, noted that City sit top of the league and said the players understand there is noise around the club but can control only their performance.
That calm message faces an immediate test at Anfield. Liverpool are among the clubs that finished behind City during part of the period under investigation, and reports expect a hostile atmosphere. City’s players have been away on international duty during the break, so Maresca’s first full chance to brief the squad and face external reporters comes only days before the match.
The legal process and the football calendar now run on different clocks. The appeal could take far longer than a season, while possible sanctions discussed publicly range from a large fine to a points deduction or, at the extreme, expulsion. None of those outcomes should be treated as decided. The commission’s findings are serious, the club’s appeal is real, and the final position remains unresolved.
Other voices are entering the debate. Reports said the United Arab Emirates, where City’s owners are based, has warned that punishment could affect future investment interest in Britain, while the club’s main sponsor has raised the possibility of legal action against the league. Those claims add a diplomatic and commercial layer to what began as a sporting regulatory case.
For rival supporters, the central issue is fairness during nine seasons in which titles and European places were contested. For City supporters, the appeal and the club’s insistence on innocence are central. Both can be true parts of the public argument while the formal process continues.
Maresca’s task is narrower. He must keep a winning team prepared while every press conference returns to lawyers and ledgers. His first answer set the tone: trust the club, ignore the noise and beat Liverpool. The season will judge the football. The appeal will judge everything else.
The verdict lands on a club transformed since the seasons in question. City’s ownership, executives, manager and most players from 2009 to 2018 have moved on, yet the institution carries the findings and any eventual sanction. That creates the strange position Maresca described: athletes competing for this season’s title while lawyers argue about championships won before some of them arrived. Relegation or points deductions would reshape the league table and possibly past honours, which is why the appeal matters to every club, not only City. Until it concludes, each City result will be reported with an asterisk in the public mind, however unfair individual players may find that.
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