{"id":266020,"date":"2026-10-05T22:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/05\/are-you-kidding-me-ex-pl-managers-shock-man-city-claim-and-bitter-haaland-reveal\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:56:00","slug":"are-you-kidding-me-ex-pl-managers-shock-man-city-claim-and-bitter-haaland-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/05\/are-you-kidding-me-ex-pl-managers-shock-man-city-claim-and-bitter-haaland-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Are you kidding me?\u2019: Ex-PL manager\u2019s shock Man City claim… and bitter Haaland reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former Premier League manager Jesse Marsch has claimed \u201ceveryone knew\u201d about Manchester City\u2019s rampant flouting of league rules, as world football\u2019s most shocking cheating scandal<\/a> rumbles on.<\/p>\n

City are facing hefty sanctions, including major points deductions, relegation from the top flight and having the club\u2019s powerful Saudi owners removed, after the league alleged they used \u201csham\u201d contracts to inflate their revenue and underline their costs by billions of dollars over nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

While City have launched an appeal, Marsch, who formerly managed Premier League rivals Leeds United, told The Guardian<\/i> that knowledge of the club\u2019s cheating was widespread, if unspoken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Man City should be punished severely,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they should have to go down, and by the way, everyone knew about it. Everyone knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now managing the Canadian men\u2019s national team, Marsch, who was sacked by Leeds in early 2023 with the club about to be relegated to the Championship, said City\u2019s claims of profit during his time in charge aroused suspicion.<\/p>\n

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Man City appeal financial charges | 01:08<\/p>\n

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In the same City won the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat summer (2022), us and Man City were the only teams that said we made money,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we did make money, because we sold Raphinha, we sold Kalvin Phillips. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot left over from what we bought. At the time, we weren\u2019t in a position financially to not save. Our ownership didn\u2019t have deep pockets. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas when Man City says this, I was literally like, \u2018Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding to Marsch\u2019s anger is City\u2019s signing of star striker Erling Haaland, who Leeds had also pursued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they said they got Erling Haaland for \u00a352m, it\u2019s like: \u2018Yeah, OK, sure!\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

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Erling Haaland. (Photo by Matt McNulty\/Getty Images)<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI knew there were inconsistencies in it, but what can you do? You just put your arms in the air and go, \u2018This is football\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Marsch\u2019s claims allege improprieties well after the 2009-2018 period in which City have been found guilty of 114 of 115 charges.<\/p>\n

An independent commission found deals agreed by City artificially inflated revenues and reduced costs by more than \u00a3900 million ($1.2 billion) during a period in which they won three Premier League titles and other silverware.<\/p>\n

It also found the club had concealed the true state of its finances, saying City were \u201csignificantly in breach of both the Premier League\u2019s and UEFA\u2019s spending limits\u201d, and that they had arranged \u201csham\u201d commercial deals with a number of sponsors as part of a \u201cdisguised funding scheme\u201d.<\/p>\n

The club confirmed last week that they would appeal the damning verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club\u2019s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe,\u201d a statement reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Premier League manager Jesse Marsch has claimed \u201ceveryone knew\u201d about Manchester City\u2019s rampant flouting of league rules, as world football\u2019s most shocking cheating scandal rumbles on. City are facing hefty sanctions, including major points deductions, relegation from the top flight and having the club\u2019s powerful Saudi owners removed, after the league alleged they used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-266020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}