Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has downplayed the impact of the club’s recent guilty verdict, emphasizing that his players are maintaining their focus solely on upcoming football challenges. The club faces the potential for significant points deductions and possible expulsion from the Premier League after an independent commission determined that City utilized “sham” commercial contracts to obscure costs and inflate revenues by more than 900 million pounds ($1.2bn) between 2009 and 2018. The investigation also confirmed the club failed to cooperate with the inquiry.
City currently leads the league table with a perfect record of five wins from five matches. They are set to resume domestic action this Sunday with a critical away fixture against Liverpool. This high-profile encounter marks the squad’s return to competitive play following the international break, and it will be followed by a home game on Wednesday against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.
Addressing the club’s in-house media on Thursday, Maresca expressed confidence in the organizational leadership. “I am very calm, the club has been quite calm. We trust completely the club,” he stated, adding that the overall sentiment within the camp remains “fantastic.”
Maresca, who previously served as an assistant to Pep Guardiola during the 2022-2023 campaign, held his first meeting with the players since the verdict was made public. While acknowledging the external “noise” surrounding the investigation and the potential for squad departures should the club’s appeal fail, he insisted the players are not distracted.
“The players are excited for the next two games, but especially they are excited because in this moment, we are top of the league, so the players they are just focused on that,” Maresca explained. He noted that the group understands their professional responsibilities and realizes that the only variables they can control are their performances on the pitch. “They know that the noise is there, but they don’t care too much about the noise. They are just focused on this moment, how we can beat Liverpool, how we can, together with the fans, try to win at Anfield.” They are not worried at all about different things.
In response to the commission’s findings, Manchester City has officially filed an appeal, maintaining its innocence. The club argues that the commission’s ruling contains “clear material errors” and asserts that they possess concrete evidence to refute the allegations.
As the weekend fixtures approach, reigning Premier League champions Arsenal will kick off the action on Saturday by hosting Leeds United. Should Arsenal secure a victory, they would move level on points with City, putting added pressure on the league leaders ahead of their Sunday showdown at Anfield.
