Maresca on Man City guilty verdict: 'We're going to win appeal'

Enzo Maresca was speaking for the first time since Man City were found guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules; Man City face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, live on Sky Sports with kick-off at 4.30pm

Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca says the club's owners are "convinced" they will win their appeal against an independent commission that found them guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules.

Speaking at his first press conference since the verdict was announced, Maresca insisted he "100 per cent completely trusts" the club's hierarchy, making him believe "we're going to win the appeal".

In his 15-minute press conference ahead of Sunday's game at Liverpool, live on Sky Sports , the Italian also said:

Backs his team to handle Sunday's "even worse" Anfield environment and called for his players to "stick together"

The independent commission found that between 2009/10 and 2017/18, Man City arranged "sham" contracts with a number of its commercial partners as part of a "disguised funding scheme" to artificially inflate the club's revenues by £830m.

Last Friday, City confirmed their appeal because they are "innocent" and described the judgement against them as "opinion" and claimed it "contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe".

Maresca, who was assistant to Pep Guardiola in the 2022/23 treble-winning season, replaced the Spaniard as head coach this summer.

Asked if he would still have joined the club had the verdict been released earlier, he replied: "I know the organisation from years ago. I know how serious they are. I know they do the right things."

Questioned on whether the charges issue was raised during talks, he responded: "No, we didn't speak about that. I didn't think that was a problem for the club at that time. Also, because they are thinking in an honest way.

Earlier he said: "The reason why I joined this club is I completely trust 100 per cent, the owner, the sporting director, the CEO - all the organisation. I have no doubt about that.

"I spoke with the club for sure. We all trust it. The right moment to speak about that is when we're going to win this appeal."

"I think it was a media masterclass from Enzo Maresca about how to deal with tough questions when you are in the middle of a media storm.

"Man City will be delighted with the way he handled that. It is not good news for journalists because we didn't really get a moment.