THE judgment against Manchester City – or "sham city" as they are now being called – is damning. For nine years, some extremely clever people at the club deliberately cheated the financial rules, creating fake sponsorship deals so they could plough £900m into assembling a team of immense talent.
Between 2009–10 and 2017–18, they effectively bought eight trophies including three Premier League titles.
This is the biggest scandal football has ever seen. It is the biggest betrayal ever of the game.
Perhaps even worse than the financial skulduggery is the way City tried to obstruct the Football Association investigation. Their witnesses "made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate" the hearing – why haven't these people been named? Are they still running the club, along with the disgraced owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan?
The process needs to be wound up now as quickly as possible, but City will appeal, as is their right, and then will come drawn-out arguments over the punishment, and the process could all be lengthened by a criminal investigation – it looks on the face of it that there has been gargantuan fraud.
So will discredited City, a tainted team, be allowed to play on during this process, being cheered every Saturday night on Match of the Day, and perhaps even winning the title this season? That will rub salt into the wounds that City have opened up.
We do feel sorry for the players, who gave the best years of their lives to the club. They were, though, handsomely remunerated.
So our greatest sorrow is for the City fans who are completely innocent in this, but we also feel sorry for the fans of other clubs – including the smaller clubs like Stoke City and Sunderland – who were robbed of seeing their teams win big prizes by City’s cheating.
It is inconceivable that City can stay in the Premier League – they have cheated each and every one of the other clubs and their fans.
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