Jesse Marsch says ‘everyone knew’ about Man City cheating – Ex-Leeds boss demands relegation
Former Leeds manager Jesse Marsch has revealed “everyone knew” Manchester City were inflating their budget when he was managing in the Premier League.
City have been hit with charges for all 115 financial breaches they were being investigated for. It’s alleged they’d been topping up sponsorship deals with money from their owners.
The Manchester outfit are adamant they haven’t done anything wrong, and have appealed the decision.
But the evidence is stacking up against them, and others are starting to have their say.
Marsch, who was in charge at Leeds in 2022 and 2023, has stated it was no secret what City were doing.
He said in an interview with The Guardian: “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.
“That summer [2022], us and Man City were the only teams that said we made money. For us, we did make money, because we sold Raphinha, we sold Kalvin Phillips [to City]. We had a lot left over from what we bought. 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?’
“When they said they got Erling Haaland for £52m, it’s like: ‘Yeah, OK, sure!’ So, I knew there were inconsistencies in it, but what can you do? You just put your arms in the air and go, ‘This is football.'”
How could Man City be punished?
Relegation is one of the potential sanctions if City’s appeal falls flat and their guilt is upheld.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire feels both a fine and points deduction is likely for the club.
He said: “Then, of course, we’ve got the precedent of Nottingham Forest, Everton, and Leicester City, all of whom breached the PSR limits and were given points deductions.
“Now, the logic behind that is that if you spend more money on players, it gives you an advantage on the pitch, and that advantage on the pitch should be punished with a punishment on the pitch in the form of a points deduction.
“Given that the Man City offences took place over a longer period of time, therefore it’s multiple offences over multiple years, you would expect a multiple of the points deductions that we’ve seen.
“We don’t know by how much Man City exceeded the PSR limits, and we’re now working on the basis of reading some of the former reports that it works out as a three-point deduction to kick off with, plus one extra point per extra £6.5m over the limit. So that will form a rough basis.
“And then there’s a further issue, have you assisted with the investigation? We’ll suggest they probably haven’t. So that’s called an aggregating factor, and the panel could subsequently give an additional points deduction on top of that.
“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. If it’s more than 70 points, they’re effectively relegated.
“From a drama point of view, and I appreciate the commission’s not interested in the drama, you give Man City a 50-point deduction, they go to minus 35, there’s 33 matches left to play for, you’ve actually got a fantastic story.
“Because they could try and stay up. They could just about stay up. And I think the attitude of the players and everything would be fascinating. But that’s a Hollywood story, rather than, is that appropriate?”
