Man City charges: Maresca says players focused on Liverpool test

What the report says

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has said the squad is staying focused on football as the club faces the fallout from a Premier League independent commission ruling over alleged financial breaches. Al Jazeera reported on 8 October 2026 that City are appealing the decision, which found the club guilty of using “sham” commercial contracts to inflate revenue and reduce costs by more than 900 million pounds between 2009 and 2018, and also found failures to cooperate with the investigation. The club could face major sanctions, including a points deduction or expulsion from the league, although any punishment would depend on the appeals process.

Maresca told the club’s in-house media that he and the players are calm and trust the club’s handling of the case. He said the team’s attention is on the pitch, not the surrounding noise, and that the squad was upbeat after returning to training following the international break. According to Al Jazeera, he addressed the players for the first time after the ruling when they resumed preparations on Thursday.

The immediate sporting focus is a difficult run of fixtures for the league leaders, who travel to Liverpool on Sunday and then host Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday in their first home match since the verdict. City sit top of the Premier League with five wins from five, and Maresca said the players are concentrating on maintaining that form. The situation matters because any eventual sanction could affect both City’s title race and the wider balance of English football.