MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Enzo Maresca came out in defense of Manchester City's ownership on Friday, despite the club being found guilty of breaking the Premier League's financial rules in the biggest scandal in the competition's history.
The manager Maresca said he had complete trust in City's hierarchy, and dismissed suggestions the club's unprecedented dominance of English soccer had been tainted by the bombshell verdict that it had artificially inflated its revenue by more than $1 billion to help sign some of soccer’s biggest stars.
“I completely trust the club in this moment, in the future, always,” Maresca said in his first news conference since the findings of an independent panel were published last week.
“The reason why I joined this club is because I completely trust 100% the owner, the CEO, the sports director, all the organization, so I don’t have any doubt about that.”
Maresca was speaking ahead of City's Premier League match with Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
Unsurprisingly the focus was on the verdict, which found the United Arab Emirates-backed team committed almost all of the 115-plus violations it was accused of during a period in which City changed the landscape of the world’s most popular soccer league.
City has always denied the charges and has lodged an appeal.
“I would like to speak about this situation when we’re going to win the appeal,” Maresca said.
Asked if the verdict tarnished City's success over more than a decade of dominance, Maresca replied, “Absolutely not.”
Maresca was hired at the end of last season when former manager Pep Guardiola stepped down after a trophy-laden 10-year tenure.
He had previously worked as Guardiola's assistant during the 2023 treble-winning season.
Asked if he still would have taken the job had the verdict come out before he became manager, Maresca replied, “100%.”
“I know the organization from years ago and I know how serious they are. I know that they do the right things,” he said.
“I trust the club because I trust the people, and this is also the reason why I joined the club. And then there is not another club in the world where I would like to be, so I’m very happy to be here.”
Maresca's immediate job is to focus the players' minds ahead of the trip to Anfield.
“We completely understand the seriousness of the situation. I’m not saying that we don’t understand that. We understand, the players understand. But it’s our duty, our job, to try to control the noise,” he said. “
“For me and for the players, we can control just the pitch side, the field side. So we are focused on that, and this is what we can do and we can control.”
Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany, who played for City from 2012-19, has offered guarded support for the club's achievements at the time while also distancing himself from the controversy.
Kompany said Friday he was “100% focused” on Bayern and that didn't leave him time “to dwell on other things.”
“But for me, it’s actually quite simple – I played there for 11 years, and I stand fully behind what we achieved on the field and the feeling we shared as a group of players during that time." he said. “Everything else, I have to be honest, it feels a bit far removed from my reality at the moment.”
___
AP Sports Writer Ciarán Fahey contributed from Berlin.
___
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
___
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
