Manchester City’s period of unprecedented domestic success now faces the very realistic possibility of being tarnished forever after the club was charged with over 100 breaches of financial rules across an eight-year stretch.
The Premier League heavyweights responded with a short but strongly-worded statement, claiming they were “surprised” at the findings and welcomed the investigation into their financial dealings.
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It’s not the first time City’s finances have been called into question, as the club was banned by UEFA for two years and hit with a $AUD46 million fine for alleged financial fair play (FFP) breaches.
However, the club’s European ban was overturned after the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s ruling.
Yet there’s every chance the independent commission set to oversee the case will come down significantly stronger on City’s alleged indiscretions, with The Times reporting “if the charges are proved it could lead to a range of sanctions including a points deduction or even expulsion from the league.”
Another sanction could see the club be stripped of the three titles it won during the nine-season period from 2009 to 2018 where they were alleged to have breached FFP rules.
The first of those six was secured with former City striker Sergio Aguero’s stoppage-time winner against Queens Park Rangers on the final day of the 2011/12 season and is widely considered as one of, if not the most iconic moment in Premier League history.
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However, The Telegraph’s Jason Burt notes that retrospectively punishing City through the measure of stripping titles away “feels like a step too far.”
“City should not have their titles taken away from them, though,” Burt wrote.
“What purpose would that serve? It may delight rival fans yet would not only feel vindictive but, as already stated, it is hard to prove that the title was directly won because of financial irregularities.
“Even so those titles will be spoilt as they will forever be associated with wrongdoing.”
Although Burt may claim City don’t deserve to have previous those three league titles stripped, others, such astalkSPORT’s Simon Jordan, believes the “last thing” the club should be punished with is a financial consequence.
Instead, Jordan believes City must face the “ultimate consequences.”
“What we don’t want to be looking at is financial consequences, because that’s not easy for them to overcome, is it?” Jordan said.
“I like to think that if they’re guilty of the things they’ve been charged with, like any other football club, they get the ultimate consequences. That means points, that means the consideration of what division they play in.
“It means the whole rubicon being crossed and saying we either mean it or we don’t. We have a menu of consequences and the last thing we want to see is Manchester City getting a £50 million fine. They couldn’t care less about a £50 million fine.
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“I’m talking about the consequences of their behaviour over a 10-year period. If they’re found guilty of 10 years’ worth of financial misrepresentation, what do you think that looks like? What do you think it means.”
Whether the consequences ultimately prove to be significant or minuscule, there is little doubting that this case is not resolved in record time.
The proverbial lines in the sand have been drawn by lawyers representing the Premier League and City, but it could be years before we get a resolution and who knows what will happen in that time on the pitch.
Either way, The Guardian’s Barney Ronay believes “we could have an absolute crapshow on our hands.”
Even further, a verdict of guilty might prove once and for all that football is no longer the “fairytale” we all thought is was.
“Somewhere buried at the bottom of this bed of white noise, beneath the grotesque commercial circus and the nation-state powerplay, is the idea of robust sporting competition, of sport as something uplifting, open and accessible from any level, of a pyramid of opportunity,” Ronay wrote.
“Football stopped being a fairytale some time ago. But if City are found guilty of cooking the books over an entire era of English football success, they will have pretty much snuffed out that light for good, broken not just the rules but the spell, the sense that what you’re watching is still on some level real and credible and straight.”