Manchester City’s first match since being found guilty of 114 of the 115 Premier League financial charges ended in a 3-0 statement win at Anfield on Sunday, as Liverpool fell to a 3-0 defeat.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the 65th minute, Jeremy Doku doubled the lead three minutes later, and Rayan Cherki added a third in the 78th minute. Liverpool’s task was made harder when Ryan Gravenberch was sent off for a second yellow card in the 62nd minute.
The result caps a seismic week for the champions. An independent commission ruled that between 2009 and 2018 the club used “sham” contracts to inflate revenue figures and cut costs, and ran disguised funding schemes worth more than £830 million with commercial partners. City were also found guilty of all but one of the charges relating to non-cooperation with the league’s four-year investigation, with the commission stating that “a number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects and that some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence.”
The verdict was confirmed in a lengthy Premier League statement on 29 September. City lodged a comprehensive appeal on 1 October, calling the commission’s opinion “unsafe” and citing “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact.” The club maintains it is innocent.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, City manager Enzo Maresca rejected suggestions the club’s titles are tainted, saying they are “absolutely not” because he knows “exactly the effort that the club put in to achieve” them. Maresca said he trusts “100%” the owner, chief executive and sporting director, and believes City will win the appeal. He had insisted his players were unaffected by “the noise,” focused only on “the pitch side, the football side.”
City went into the weekend top of the Premier League after winning their first five games of the season. Any sanctions — with a fine, points deduction, transfer ban or even relegation all theoretically on the table, plus calls to strip titles won between 2009 and 2018 — will depend on the outcome of the appeal. Four Premier League clubs, including Manchester United, were reportedly given early warning of the verdict ahead of a decision on compensation.
