Jesse Marsch Says 'Everyone Knew' About Man City's Financial Breaches, Demands Relegation

An Outside Voice Joins the Pile-On

An independent Premier League commission found Manchester City guilty of serious financial rule breaches spanning the 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters reporting. Manchester City filed an appeal against that ruling on Thursday, October 1, calling the verdict riddled with "material errors of law, principle and fact." The club fully denies wrongdoing.

Three days later, on Sunday, October 4, Canada men's national team coach Jesse Marsch gave The Guardian an interview that's now making the rounds across sports media. His message was blunt: "I think Man City should be punished severely. I think they should have to go down, and by the way, everyone knew about it. Everyone knew."

What the Commission Actually Found

The numbers in the ruling vary by outlet. Al Jazeera and Rediff reported the Premier League alleged City used "sham" commercial contracts to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million ($1.19 billion) over nine seasons. The Daily Mirror cited a different figure, reporting City used a "disguised funding scheme" to hide more than £830 million in secret backing between 2009 and 2018. The Mirror also reported City was found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against it.

City's defense, laid out in its own public statements and reported by Daily Mail, is that the independent commission got the law wrong, not just the facts. The club has not conceded a single point of the ruling. Its appeal will be heard privately by a three-member independent board, and Rediff reported it remains unclear whether any sanctions would be imposed before that appeal is resolved.

Marsch's Case, in His Own Words

Marsch coached Leeds United from February 2022 until he was sacked in February 2023, with Leeds eventually relegated that same season, per the Daily Mail. He pointed to the summer of 2022 as the moment his suspicions hardened.

That window, Leeds sold Raphinha to Barcelona and Kalvin Phillips to Manchester City, for a fee reported between £42 million and £45 million depending on the outlet. Marsch said Leeds and City were the only two clubs in the league that reported a profit that year, and he found City's number impossible to square with what he saw on the pitch.

"At the time, we weren't in a position financially to not save. Our ownership didn't have deep pockets. Whereas when Man City says this, I was literally like, 'Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke?'" Marsch told The Guardian.

He also singled out City's £52 million signing of Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund that same summer, calling the figure implausible given the club's spending power. "So, I knew there were inconsistencies in it, but you just put your arms in the air and go, 'This is football,'" he said.

What a Loss on Appeal Could Mean

Football finance analyst Kieran Maguire told LiveScore that if City's guilt is upheld after appeal, a fine and points deduction are the likely outcomes, drawing comparisons to Nottingham Forest, Everton and Leicester City, all of whom lost points for breaching separate profit-and-sustainability rules in recent seasons. Maguire said City's violations, spanning nine seasons rather than one, should produce a far larger penalty than those cases.

"If all of those are proven post-appeal, my gut reaction is we would be looking for somewhere in the region of perhaps 50 to 60 points," Maguire said, adding that a deduction north of 70 points would effectively relegate the club outright.

Marsch's claim that "everyone knew" is an assertion from a rival manager, not a finding from the commission itself, and it should be read that way. He has a personal stake here: Leeds went down the same season City won the treble, and the Mirror noted Leeds finished below both Everton and Forest, two clubs later punished for financial breaches of their own. That doesn't make his suspicion about Haaland's fee or City's 2022 profit claim wrong, but it means his testimony is color commentary from someone who lost, not new evidence in the case.

City, for its part, has not conceded the underlying facts the commission relied on. It disputes the legal framework the commission applied, not merely the size of the penalty. No sanction, relegation, points deduction or fine has actually been imposed. That decision sits with the three-member appeal board, and neither Reuters nor any outlet in this reporting has a timeline for when that board will rule.