Enzo Maresca insists Manchester City titles are 'absolutely not' tainted after guilty verdict

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has insisted the club’s titles are "absolutely not" tainted after they were found guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations.

Speaking on Friday for the first time since the landmark ruling, Maresca expressed absolute faith in the club's hierarchy and said he was convinced they would overturn the decision on appeal.

An independent commission found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them, ruling that the club had used "sham" contracts to disguise more than £830 million in secret funding between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. City have already appealed, calling the verdict "unsafe" and full of "clear material errors".

Defending the titles

Maresca, who returned to City in June to succeed Pep Guardiola, was relaxed under intense questioning from reporters. Having served as Guardiola’s assistant during the Treble-winning 2022-23 season, he rejected any suggestion that those achievements had been compromised.

"Absolutely not," Maresca said when asked if City's success was tainted. "I know the effort from the players, the club, the manager. I know the effort that the club put to achieve that kind of target so I don’t have any doubt about that."

He made it clear that his trust in the hierarchy remains unshaken. "The reason I joined this club is that I completely trust, 100 per cent, the owner, the CEO, the sporting director, all the organisation," he said. "The right moment to speak about that is when we are going to win this appeal."

Preparing for Anfield

The news of the verdict sets up an incredibly hostile atmosphere for City's trip to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday. City head into the match top of the Premier League after winning their opening five games.

Maresca insisted his young squad is insulated from the controversy. "The noise is there," he said. "But the players... they are 20-25 years old. They come, they enjoy their training sessions. They go home happy. So the players are relaxed. They are just thinking of how we can beat Liverpool."

He also confirmed that striker Erling Haaland is fit and ready to play after recovering from international duty with Norway.

Looking to the future

Maresca revealed that the Premier League charges did not even come up during his contract talks in the summer because the club was so confident of its innocence.

Asked whether he would stay if the appeal failed and City were relegated to the lower leagues, Maresca smiled. "I won the Championship with Leicester, so in case we’re in League One, we’ll see," he said. "But we are thinking about something we don’t know."