Maresca on City's Guilty Verdict: 'I Trust the Club Completely' as the Anfield Trip Looms

MANCHESTER — FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2026 — Enzo Maresca walked into the press room at the City Football Academy on Friday morning knowing exactly what was coming. For three days, every football show in England has been a courtroom replay: Manchester City, found guilty of the majority of the 115 Premier League financial charges. Sham contracts. A disguised funding scheme worth more than £900 million. Nine seasons under the microscope. And now, finally, the manager was going to say something about it — forty-eight hours before the single loudest away trip in English football, at Anfield, against an unbeaten Liverpool. Maresca didn't flinch. Not once.

01 The Question He Knew Was Coming

Let's get the context straight, because the verdict itself is the backdrop to everything Maresca said. An independent commission found City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules across nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18 — plus the majority of the non-cooperation charges. The club has appealed, and a separate sanctions hearing will follow. The full breakdown of what was proven, and what happens next, is in our verdict explainer.

Maresca's position, stated plainly and repeatedly on Friday morning: he's not wavering. "I trust the club completely because I trust the people and this is also the reason why I joined," he said, according to The Times' live blog of the managers' press conferences. "There is not another club in the world where I would like to be. I am very happy to be here. I am very proud."

On the appeal process itself, he kept it tight. "There is a process ongoing, and in this moment I completely trust the club," Maresca said, as reported by Liverpool.com. "This is what I can say about that." And when asked whether he had spoken with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak about the verdict, the answer came with a grin you could hear: "I spoke with the club, for sure," he said. "We all trust. The right moment to speak about that is when we win that appeal."

02 Anfield, Though — That's Sunday's Problem

The verdict questions eventually gave way to the football, and the football on Sunday is about as big as it gets: Liverpool at Anfield, unbeaten this season, with the Kop certain to have opinions about City's week. Maresca was asked if he was concerned. Of course he is — and he said so. "I am always concerned," Maresca said, according to Liverpool.com. "I know Anfield is a nice pitch and the reason I came to this club is for this kind of game."

"It will be a tough game for sure, but we need to be ready," he added. "The focus has to be in the game. The environment at Anfield is nice, and it will probably be even worse because of this situation." He's not wrong. Anfield has never needed much encouragement, and a guilty verdict is premium fuel.

But can his players handle that kind of heat? Maresca reached for the kind of football that hardens you. "Enzo Fernandez, he played in Argentina," he said, per Liverpool.com's account of the press conference. "Almost every game (there) is like going to Anfield, so it is not a problem." The point landed: his squad has played in cauldrons before, and one more — even a Scouse one with a grudge — won't break them.

03 "100 Per Cent"

Then came the question with the sharpest edge. Maresca replaced Pep Guardiola in the summer — the former Chelsea manager returning to the club where he'd served as Guardiola's assistant during the treble season. Would he still have taken the job, The Times asked, if the guilty verdict had landed before his appointment? "100 per cent," Maresca answered. No pause, no caveat. That, more than anything else he said on Friday, is the line that will travel.

04 "Absolutely Not": On Tainted Titles

And then the one everyone's been arguing about in group chats all week: are City's titles — including the 2023 treble that Maresca himself helped win from the dugout — tainted now? "Absolutely not," Maresca responded, as reported by RushTheKop. "The last time I was here was the treble season, I know the effort from the players, from the club, from the manager in that time, Pep, so I know the effort that was needed to make that achievement." He was there. He saw the work. He's not giving the medals back in his head, and he's not asking anyone else to either.

05 The Dressing Room, According to Maresca

If the manager's read is right, the squad isn't spiraling — it's locked in. "The noise is there but the players are relaxed," Maresca said, according to Liverpool.com. "They are just thinking about how they will beat Liverpool." That's the whole job description for a footballer in a week like this: shrink the world to 90 minutes.

The mood music from inside the building backs him up. In a separate in-house media interview this week, Maresca was effusive: "The feeling is fantastic, to be honest," he said, via ThisIsAnfield — his players excited, sitting top of the league, and clear-eyed about the division of labor. "They know what we can control is the football side." And the dressing room's loudest voice has been Erling Haaland, who has urged his teammates to "stick together and enjoy the ride and smile," as reported by ThisIsAnfield. Smile. Through the biggest scandal in Premier League history. It's either delusion or elite mentality, and we'll find out which on Sunday.

06 Sunday: The Game Itself

All of this — the trust, the defiance, the smiling — gets its first real examination at Anfield on Sunday, the first Super Sunday of the guilty-verdict era. Liverpool are unbeaten this season under Andoni Iraola, though the draws have been piling up enough to make Anfield anxious — as we laid out earlier this week. Iraola faces the press himself at 1:30pm on Friday, and he'll have his own headaches: Alexander Isak (toe) and Cody Gakpo (ankle) both picked up injuries on international duty and had not returned to training as of Thursday.

History says City shouldn't fear the trip. They won at Anfield last season — Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring for Liverpool before Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland turned it around. But history didn't include a guilty verdict hanging over the away dressing room. We'll have full build-up and coverage in the sports section through the weekend.