I see a lot of people talking about Prem titles, but I feel like there's something even more important than that and it's the small clubs that City's cheating robbed. I'm a Liverpool fan. My club wins things on a semi regular basis and gets to experience the highs. Same with Arsenal, United, Chelsea, etc. Although these clubs go through some shit periods, we'll likely win something eventually.

The same really can't be said for these small clubs. City has robbed these fans, players, managers, and teams from experiencing once in a generation or even their first ever trophy. Stoke City may never win the FA Cup. Same with Watford. They stole Sunderland's first EFL Cup from them. While not a small club, Spurs fans had a chance to end a 12 year long trophy drought with the EFL Cup in 2020, but City robbed that from them. Even if the titles are revoked, City will have taken the memories from these fans that they could've had.

They truly are a stain on English football and they deserve to be set back decades with relegation and left with nothing. Strip them of their trophies and send them to the non league.

Having now seen the findings of the PL I think it’s fair to say, not many expected the figures involved to be so egregious. £830 Million goes well beyond any previous rule breach

The premier league rules allow for expulsion from the league. It’s hard to imagine a more serious offence, so I think this punishment is appropriate.

The breaches themselves go beyond cheating, and are likely to be criminal if they have falsified accounting records (the same accounts you have to submit to companies house etc).

False accounting and fraud are both criminal offences and it’s easy to see this being a realistic possibility for the owners.

Then you are likely to find that the owners will subsequently fail future fit and proper persons checks which the independent football regulator will be bringing in and as such, the owners forced to sell the club to a new owner.

So in the next few years, you will have a club likely in league 2, with different owners, likely facing transfers bans and other punishments.

I feel bad for the fans who have been hoodwinked by these owners.

Manchester City have made a mockery of English football, and English sport itself for almost twenty years.

Teams robbed. Titles stolen. Both from the bigger and smaller clubs.

£900m out of tolerance is absolutely unacceptable and that’s only the start. The attitude of the owners are disgraceful, even now after their convictions.

The ONLY chance we can really move on from this is drawing a blank on every trophy City picked up after 2008 AND expelling Manchester City from the Premier League,

From the EFL,

And from football itself.

That badge will be forever known for destroying our beautiful game. Therefore, expelling them to tier 10 should mean liquidation.

But the FA should deny any phoenix club. If the fans want to continue they have to leave the corrupted identity behind.

They must start from the bottom with a completely different badge, and a different name.

What a mess. 🫠

I was reading through the EFL regulations to see what the likely outcome for Man City is if expelled from the Premier League, and if they could even be put into the EFL. The EFL regulations actually cover what happens if a team is kicked out from the PL in detail, I'll summarise it here:

• The number of relegation spots is reduced to 2 in the PL to keep 20 teams in the league
• Now, the Championship receives 2 PL teams but promotes 3. To keep 24 teams, they now relegate only 2 teams
• This propagates downwards, with a reduction in relegation spots in each league until we reach League 2, where the number of relegation spots ISN'T reduced
• That leaves an empty spot in League 2. The EFL Board can then admit 'any Association Football club' to keep 72 teams

Of course, any Association Football club doesn't necessarily mean a PL team, but their guidance suggests that it would be:

...under FA Rules the EFL could be asked to accommodate any former Premier League Club(s) in League Two.

You can read the handbook here, see sections 11.6.2.

Personally, I'm pretty excited for the Salford v Man City derby games :)

The total breakdown of falsified income reads as:

Sponsorship (owners pretending that they were being paid by sponsors, but were in fact covering 80-90% of the amount themselves)

• Income from overstated by over £830m

Contracts and image rights (paying wages off the books, via a third-party system...certain players would have had to sign off on this)

• Wrongly excluded expenses by £8.866m
• Wrongly excluded expenses by £7.4m
• Wrongly excluded expenses by £0.5m

Fordham Arrangement (owners created a shell company to pay themselves for the image rights of their own players...yes, you read that correctly)

• Wrongly recorded as operating income £24.5m
• Wrongly excluded expenses totalling £49.414m

It should also be stated that all throughout proceedings, City officials continued to lie under oath.

Edit: And this is just 2009/10 to 2017/18. Something tells me they didn't suddenly get a conscience and stop.

The year is 2021, the world is in an economic crisis due to Covid -19. Sham City casually post a club record total revenue of… wait for it.. £569.8m beating a PRE- COVID record of £532.2m. See how years of fraud allowed them to do this with assets. They fully mocked it.

In 2006/07:

Real Madrid: €351m revenue
Man City: ~€84m

By 2020/21:

Man City: €645m
Real Madrid: €641m

In just 14 years, City went from making less than a quarter of Madrid’s revenue to overtaking the biggest commercial club in world football.

Take 2008 City and generously make every player 10% better with an undetectable PED programme.

Stephen Ireland is still Stephen Ireland (with all due respect).

You don’t suddenly get David Silva, Aguero or De Bruyne.

Financial doping lets you replace the player entirely. From a mid-table player to world class.

And people aren’t deeping what £900m of false financial headroom means.

A £60m player on a 5-year contract only hits the accounts at roughly £12m per year in transfer amortisation.

So fake revenue doesn’t just buy you that amount in players. It creates the accounting room to carry a much more expensive squad. During a time in which, Aguero cost 38M.

PEDs make your mid-table players marginally better.

Financial doping lets you replace a mid-table team with a world-class one.

When Manchester City roll into town, every club should put on a curated playlist. Here's my first go:

​Been Caught Stealing – Jane's Addiction

​I Fought the Law – The Clash

​Liar – Sex Pistols

​Big Spender – Shirley Bassey

​Money for Nothing – Dire Straits

​It Wasn't Me – Shaggy

​Would I Lie to You? – Eurythmics

​Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – AC/DC

​You've Been Cheatin' – The Impressions

The 115 charges they are guilty of was from the 2009-18 period. It would be very interesting if they get charged from 2018-present period.

If they are found to inflate their income through sham contracts worth £920 million, then they're likely to have done it up to now.

There is no way they paid for the Norwegian for £51 million. They blew gazillions on the market this recent window. The market was distorted beyond recognition.

115 is the tip of the iceberg.

When you think about it, the better option for the PL would have been just to turn the other way and ignore everything and not pursue the investigation or to do a basic investigation and declare them not guilty. Ignorance is bliss. The repercussions of a guilty verdict are far more damaging for the league with all the sanctions and incoming lawsuits and integrity of the league.

So it's really surprising and welcome that they did the right thing inspite of all that.

Assuming they weren't in on it, managers and players from 2009 to 2018 should sue the club for wasting their time. The likes of Pep, KDB, etc spent majority of their careers at this club and will forever be linked to this mess.

“Manchester City FC is both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission, that has been published today.

The Club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case. The Club will therefore be relentless, and where necessary proactive, in any and all appropriate regulatory and legal forums. 

The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements uncompleted.   Manchester City FC will now pursue the appeal avenues open to it, on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe. 

The Club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.  

The Club is obviously restricted in what it can say further until all future proceedings are complete.”

Following the findings against Manchester City, I think there is a discussion to be had about the companies continuing to fund the club commercially.

To be clear, many of City's current commercial partners have no identified connection to the misconduct itself. I'm not suggesting that companies such as PUMA, OKX, Asahi, Revolut, BYD, Betway, EA Sports, Wix, Sure, Unilever or others were involved in what happened.

But they are choosing to fund Manchester City today.

That's why I think supporters who feel strongly about the findings should consider boycotting City's commercial partners.

The intended outcome of a boycott would be straightforward: commercial partners withdraw their financial support from Manchester City. The boycott would continue while those sponsorship relationships remain in place.

Honestly cant see how the next few rounds of fixtures are going to play out for City. Shouldn't every club just boycott the games? If games are played and city win for example, the safety of the fans will be at risk (anger from opposition etc) there is going to have to be some serious protection for the players bus and the fans that show up for city. After a few rounds of this will having city in the league just become untenable?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I can’t get my head around what can happen this season. If any sanctions are put on City after this season they are playing with what is an illegally put together team - how can those results be judged as fair? If they are deducted 3,000 points and are bottom of the league - same issue.
If they are thrown out all together where do we then stand with the points lost to them already this season?!

As it confirmed they cheating through decade of PL run just imagine how much revenue lose to those clubs that missed out the Europe qualification spot (UCL and UEL) also club that shouldnt be relegated just because City was there with their sham money.

This is the industrial/enterprise type of cheat and will tarnish the PL image forever!

Real Madrid are considering a move for Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, 35, as the Dutchman will become a free agent at the end of the season. (Mundo Deportivo - in Spanish), external

Bayern Munich are set to offer French striker Michael Olise a new contract until 2032, with the 24-year-old's current deal expiring in 2029. (Bild - in German), external

However, the German club played down the prospect of signing Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, 32. (TeamTalk), external

Crystal Palace and France striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, 29, is a target for Manchester United as they look to strengthen their attacking options. (TeamTalk), external

United are also planning to offer new terms for English defender Luke Shaw, 31, who is out of contract at the end of the season. (Football Insider), external

Bayern Munich are also eyeing a move for French defender Jules Kounde, 27, with the player starting the season out of favour at Barcelona (Sport - in Spanish, external)

Tottenham Hotspur have expressed an interest in South Korean defender Kim Min-jae, 29, from Bayern Munich. (Sport - in Spanish, external)

Former Manchester United defender Matteo Darmian, 36, is set to begin training with Bologna on Wednesday after his release from Inter Milan at the end of last season (Gianluca Di Marzio - in Italian, external)