Enzo Maresca held crunch talks with Man City bosses and opens up on ‘belief’ dialog
Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca has admitted he held talks with higher-ups after the Etihad outfit were found guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations
Enzo Maresca spoke to the media for the first time since the verdict on Friday(Image: Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
Enzo Maresca has admitted he held crunch talks with Manchester City after they were found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules. Maresca was speaking to the media for the first time since the independent panal released their findings.
The verdict found that City had “arranged sham contracts” – which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties – with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on “sham” agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018.
City reject this and have launched an appeal, claiming the findings “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe.” And they’re “innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions.”
Enzo Maresca insisted Manchester City will win the appeal(Image: Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
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And opening up on conversations behind the scenes, Maresca said: “The reason I joined this club is because I completely trust the owner, the CEO, the sporting director. I spoke with the club, for sure, and we all trust.”
He added defiantly: “Probably the right moment to speak is when we’re going to win this appeal…There is an ongoing process and in this moment I completely trust the club.
“There is not another club in the world where I would like to be. I’m very happy to be here and I’m very proud. I’ve said that from day one.
Enzo Maresca spoke with the likes of Khaldoon Al Mubarak(Image: Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
“The players, for me and the players, we can only control the football side. We’re going to win the appeal. It makes no sense to speak about anything else.”
City are back in action on Sunday afternoon – when they make the tough trip to Anfield: “It will be a tough game, a tough test,” Maresca said.
“We need to be ready. The focus has to be about the game, but also the environment at Anfield is nice, and it probably will be even worse because of the situation. It will be our duty to try and do our best to win the game.”
Manchester City will face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday(Image: Andy Hampson/PA Wire. EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation)
The Reds were second best to Pep Guardiola’s City for the majority of his tenure, but Maresca has insisted that their titles are not tainted: “Absolutely not. The last time I was here was the Treble season, I know the effort from the players, the club, the manager that was Pep.
“I know exactly the effort the club put in to achieve that kind of target. I don’t have any doubts about that…Absolutely not.”
