Maresca has ‘complete trust’ in Man City and says achievements not tainted

by · The42

MANCHESTER CITY HEAD coach Enzo Maresca rejected suggestions the club’s achievements have been tainted after they were found guilty of more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial rules.

An independent commission concluded more than £830million [€980 million] of owner funding was used to inflate revenues and enable City to comply with Premier League and Uefa regulations through a series of “sham” arrangements between 2009 and 2018.

However, City have lodged an appeal after stating the commission’s judgment contained “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe” and that there was “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to support their position.

In his first press conference since the news broke Maresca, flanked by City’s chief communications officer Simon Heggie rather than the regular member of staff for such occasions, was asked whether the trophies won during the period in question were tainted.

“Absolutely not. I know the effort from the players, the club and the manager at the time, Pep (Guardiola), so I don’t have any doubt about that,” he said.

Advertisement

“I understand the reason why most of you are here but the only thing I can say it is something I already said. There is a process ongoing and in this moment I completely trust the club. This is what I can say about that.

“I trust the club because I trust the people and this is also the reason why I joined the club. There is not another club in the world where I would like to be.

“I spoke with the club, for sure, and we all trust and the right moment to speak about that is when we win the appeal.”

Asked whether he would quit if he discovered he had been misled by club officials Maresca said: “I will speak about this when we win the appeal. No sense to speak about anything.”

And on whether he would have taken the job this summer had the commission’s decision been published before then he added: “One hundred per cent.

“I know the organisation from years ago, and I know how serious they are, I know they do the right things.

“We didn’t speak about that (the charges) because I don’t think that was a problem for the club at the time as they were thinking in an honest way and they are convinced at the end we will win the appeal.”

Maresca admitted he had not read the findings of the commission.

“Again, I trust the club. I promise you my focus is just about football so I’m not thinking about different things because, first of all, I don’t understand about many things,” he said ahead of Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.

“For me, for the players, we can control just the football side. We are focused on that and that is what we can control, we can’t control anything different.

“We just try to manage the noise. We understand the seriousness of the situation, the noise. We just need to manage that. We have to go to Anfield and win the game.”

*****