Manchester City were met with boos and chants by aggrieved Liverpool supporters as the team took to the pitch at Anfield for their first match since being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules.
The club were charged with 115 breaches of the rules by the Premier League in 2023 and an independent commission investigated the allegations and found City guilty of the majority of them. The club, who maintain their innocence, have launched an appeal against the verdict and claim to have “irrefutable evidence” proving their stance.
The outcome of that appeal is not expected to be known until December or January at the earliest and City find themselves in a state of limbo with the guilty verdict attached to them until the case moves on.
Should City lose their appeal they face possible punishments such as heavy fines, points deductions and potential expulsion from the Premier League with many managers, fans and pundits voicing their own opinions on what measure would be most suitable.
City have been found guilty of inflating their revenues by £900m, using disguised funding schemes, across the seasons between 2009-2018 where they also won three Premier League titles. Liverpool were beaten into second place during the 2013/14 season and the fans voiced their displeasure at City during Sunday’s late Premier League kick off.
Outside of the ground merchandise sellers sold flags and scarves displaying Man City’s players with the words ‘guilty’ and ‘cheats’ written on them while Liverpool supporters lined the streets around an hour and a half before the scheduled 4.30pm kick off to greet the team buses.
Songs were sung about Manchester City ‘going down, going down, going down’ and that the club were ‘cheating b*****ds’. To maintain order, Merseyside Police flew drones and had an increased presence of officers around the ground. Liverpool’s team bus arrived to much fanfare but City’s two coaches took a quieter, alternate route to the stadium to avoid the crowds.
However, inside the stadium the players were met with a chorus of boos as they came onto the pitch as the home fans also displayed a banner which read: "a generation of supporters cheated" in one corner of the ground.
Man City manager Enzo Maresca said in Friday’s pre-match press conference that he and his players were expecting a hostile reception and a ‘tough test’ against Liverpool.
“It will be a tough game for sure. Tough test. We need to be ready,” he said. “The focus has to be about the game but also we know the environment in Anfield is nice and probably it will be worse because of the situation, but we will try to do our best to win the game.
“Absolutely they [the players] can face the pressure. Absolutely. We have players that have experienced similar situations.”
Maresca, who signed a three-year contract at the Etihad Stadium in the summer, also revealed that he has complete trust in the club and believes they will win their appeal.
He explained: “I trust the people and this is also the reason why I joined the club. There is not another club in the world where I would like to be. So I'm very happy to be here. I'm very proud. I said many times since day one.
“I know how serious they are. I know they do the right things. I would like to speak about this when we're going to win the appeal.”