Erling Haaland urges Manchester City fans to stick together as club appeals financial verdict

Erling Haaland urged Manchester City supporters to stick together and stay positive on Thursday, 8 October, ahead of the club's Premier League visit to Liverpool. His first public comments since an independent commission found City had breached financial rules came as the club appeals the verdict and awaits a decision on sanctions.

Asked by Sky Sports for his message to fans, Haaland said: ‘We have to stick together. We have to stay with each other, and we have to stay positive.’ Reuters reported his remarks, published by Channel NewsAsia, before Sunday's match at Anfield. He encouraged the team to look ahead, try to win games and enjoy playing despite the uncertainty around the club.

Haaland also described a personal connection with City's supporters. ‘I care a lot about this place, and the UK generally, I care a lot about the fans because I'm a fan myself, and I feel with them as well,’ he said. His comments addressed the mood around the club; he did not give a view on the merits of the commission's findings.

What Manchester City's financial verdict found

The Premier League said on 29 September that an independent commission had found Manchester City guilty of all charges concerning serious breaches of its financial rules over nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18. The commission also upheld most of the charges alleging that the club failed to cooperate with the league's investigation. The published findings concern a disciplinary case under football rules.

The commission upheld three of four alleged breaches of the club's duty to cooperate, the Premier League said. It concluded that City had made concerted efforts to frustrate the investigation. The league began that investigation in December 2018, issued its complaint in February 2023 and held a 42-day commission hearing that ended in December 2024. Those dates help explain the length of a case whose sporting consequences are still unsettled.

City's appeal and the undecided sanction

City lodged an appeal at 7 p.m. on 1 October, according to a club statement cited by the Associated Press. The club said it believed the commission's opinion contained ‘clear material errors, of law, principle and fact’ and was unsafe. Its challenge means the findings are being contested through the Premier League's appeals process; the cited reports do not establish an appeal outcome.

AP reported that the commission rejected City's explanation of sponsorship funding as untrue. City maintains that no part of those sponsorship deals was funded by its owner group's private company. These are competing positions in the disciplinary case, and the appeal has not resolved them in the records available for this report.

The Premier League said sanctions would be addressed separately at a further commission hearing. Its statement lists fines, points deductions and other sporting penalties among possible outcomes, without announcing which, if any, will apply. AP reported that the timing of a sanction decision relative to the appeal remains unclear. The league says the sanction hearing will remain private until publication of its outcome is permitted.

Under league regulations described by AP, an appeal hearing should take place within 12 weeks of filing and last no more than five consecutive days. AP said that hearing, too, would remain private until an outcome can be published. A hearing timetable is therefore a procedural guide, rather than a date on which supporters can expect a public decision.

Liverpool match puts focus back on the pitch

Reuters reported that City were due to take a three-point lead at the top of the table to Liverpool on Sunday, 11 October. Haaland called the fixture special and recalled watching matches between Pep Guardiola's City and Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool before joining the club. His message to supporters was to stay together and concentrate on winning football games while the legal process continues.

The immediate sporting question is how City perform at Anfield. The separate disciplinary questions remain open: whether the appeal changes the commission's findings, when the confidential sanction process concludes, and what penalty, if any, is imposed. Neither Haaland's appeal for unity nor the upcoming match supplies an answer to those questions.