despite being owned by a state with which the UK has many interests economically will it be one of the cases that might go unpunished?
despite being owned by a state with which the UK has many interests economically will it be one of the cases that might go unpunished?
Despite being from the red side of Manchester, I strongly dislike the idea of retroactively stripping titles in any sport, not just football but stuff like F1 too. It just opens a whole can of worms.
A precedent has been set with Everton. I dont know how many breches they had, but all I can find online was over the 21-22 season losing £124.5m when the regulations only allow for a loss of £105m. If this counts as 1 breach, then the precedent is 10points deducted per breach.
City have over 100breaches. That means City is due over 1000points deducted if we remain consistent.
Obviously this will be rather absurd and City would end up dropping out of league football over the next few seasons. But I think its more than fair to drop them to 0 points this season and not let them earn any more since they obviously cant get 100s of points in a single season.
This will drop them down to the championship which will cause plenty headache for the club for a season. Some players may stick around, others may force a transfer away refusing to play outside the top flight of football. I think this is the very bare minimum punishment. As I said, they set a precedent with Everton, so if we are being strictly equal here, City should have to earn some 1000points again to be able to actually start accumilating them once more on the table. Sadly they would never let a club like City fall down the leagues and outside of national football.
So yeah, a major fine, a transfer ban for some years and drop them to 0 points and dont let them earn any more for the rest of the season is the minimum I want to see if they have the balls to treat City like they did Everton.
I think I agree about not stripping titles, but it’s a tricky one. I don’t envy the authorities trying to navigate this.
If they’re found guilty on all charges then what you’re suggesting really isn’t enough though in my opinion. They’d need to be set back for years in that situation. How you do that though… I have no idea.
I get the arguement for stripping titles. Its entirely valid imo. The only reason im not so keen on it is it puts the sport in an ugly light where any title is put under question. Discussions will be dominated by “if X title was removed for Y, then A title should also be forfeit because B” sort of thing. I just think that sort of thing would get super ugly real quick.
As for whether what I suggested is enough punishment. Well personally id say force City to earn 1150 points before they can start getting points again. Itd only be ‘fair’ considering the precedent set with Everton. Thing is is that a realistic punishment? Even if they win every game in the championship, league 1 & league 2, they would still tumble all the way down into non league football to a point they would be playing against some random university teams at the local park…
The club should absolutely get kneecapped but I somehow dont see it being that severe. I was simply trying to suggest the absolute minimum punishment that is barely even enough of a punishment for the infraction, which can potentially be applied. I certainly wish it would be much much harsher but to be honest id be happy if they even go that far, which for all intents and purposes isnt far enough at all. My comment was just about the bare minimum they should suffer while also being realistic to what can be done. Its not like they can basically nuke City off the face of the footballing world sadly.
So by that logic I assume you object to Lance Armstrong being stripped of the 7 Tour of Frances he ‘won’ while cheating?
I think retroactively stripping titles is the only punishment worthwhile. What’s it to Man City if they even get forcefully relegated? They have all those titles, success, new fans, and prestige already. It sends a signal that it is OK to buy success and get all those wins because all that will happen is you will spend one season in the championship before being back.
Being able to say to City fans that they only won the league 1 or 2 times because the rest of it they cheated and were disqualified is the only way the punishment can have any meanings. This history books won’t care otherwise.
And from what I can see with Everton it was at least they tried to get out of it and were hurt by the pandemic. City and Chelsea did it deliberately. The punishment has to be heavier.