Canada coach Jesse Marsch, who managed Leeds United in 2022-23, has said Manchester City should be punished severely, even relegated, after an independent commission found the club guilty of serious breaches of Premier League financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18; he claimed in a Guardian interview that "everyone knew". The league alleged City used "sham" commercial contracts to inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million, while the club denies wrongdoing and has appealed to a private independent three-member panel. Possible sanctions include fines, points deductions or even stripped titles or relegation, and it is unclear whether any penalty would apply before the appeal is decided.