Bluedylan1 wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2026 1:54 pm It'll absolutely have to be a drastic punishment. Anybody saying ''they won't even be relegated'' I think isn't grasping the enormity of what they've done.
They've basically voided the entirety of Premier League football from 2009 to the current day, not just for themselves but for everyone involved. It's all tainted and asterisked. It's the biggest example of cheating ever in any sport, in terms of the widespread impact on everyone.
Obviously we all know the financial rules are poorly constructed, but that's a different point. The point stands that they have knowingly cheated, deceived and covered up the cheating for the best part of 2 decades, while almost everyone else involved has followed those deeply imperfect rules.
The owners have ruined that club forever basically. This will never be forgotten about. City fans will still have this leveled at them in 50 years time, if football and the human race still exists.
Their owners have hired 28 (!) of the best lawyers in the world on vast sums of money to prevent this case from ever reaching this stage, and to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day, because of the enormity of the case and it's repercussions. And thankfully they've failed.
To people who say ''City fans will still have the memories'', I think that is pure cope from the point of view of City fans. None of the memories are real. None of the trophies are real. All of the players and managers, as brilliant as they are, who have operated under this regime are asterisked forever. I'm a huge Guardiola fan and always have been, but a decade of his managerial career basically means absolutely nothing now. It's null and void.
And there are precedents in other sports, as others have said. When you watch cycling now, the commentators won't even refer to the Lance Armstrong years. It's the dirty secret in the family that no-one talks about or acknowledges. Same with Ben Johnson and other dopers in Athletics. You don't see their races replayed in highlights packages. They are consigned to the scrapheap of history. They don't count and they'll never count.
For the Premier League to be a remotely valid thing in the coming years, with even a semblance of credibility and sporting integrity, the punishment will have to be appropriately brutal. Otherwise the global brand will be destroyed beyond repair.
What do you think is appropriate? For me if city ever win another Premier league they've gotten away with it
