I think they should be stripped of the titles, I don’t really care at this point if they are awarded to us because the moment of victory was robbed. Honestly the little number next to our name doesn’t bother me that much.
What I’m more interested in is that they have heavy penalties going forwards. Multiple relegations (also the FFP for the FL is much stricter) and transfers bans for multiple years.
Imagine the hand-wringing going on at Sandcastle HQ right now: What’s the point of buying a club if we can’t throw as much of our hard-earned 
petro-dollars as we like at it in order to buy success and trophies? Oh, the humanity! 
This is how I see it.
It’s nice to have a number but it would never mean much, nothing comparable to the two CL finals and the PL league win in 2020.
If we had won the last day last season I think it may have topped them all in a way (I also think we may have completed all 4 trophies).
What I would like for them is to be made an example and that is demotion to the lowest league tier if not further, be intriguing because their would I assume be no parachute payment so they’d have to get their finances to a suitable level very quickly. One thing the FL is heavy on is FFP, it’s why clubs scramble before the parachute payments run out.
Bournemouth spent heavily last January on this basis I believe, probably why Burnley did the same. They couldn’t stand still and risk too long down there, creates the same churn of teams sadly but you can start to see who is well managed and who isn’t.
I think two main factors have influenced the timing.
The government, essentially saying to the Prem that it needs to get its house in order, and the Prem responding by bringing charges against Man City. An independent oversight committee might yet form, but while this is playing out, I see it as the Premier League demonstrating to the government that it can run its own affairs.
The timing of the European Super League* is the other factor that is prompting the Prem to act. When it was first announced it felt rushed, or leaked, as it had significant issues. Still, if you peered beneath the outrage, at its heart was an attempt to rein in the likes of Man City and PSG.
The Premier League is thus in some sort of pincer - feeling the pressure of government from above, and clubs from below. Several of those clubs are legacy clubs, with more fans and global appeal than Man City.
These two main factors coming together make me feel like the punishment meted out to Man City will be severe. Severe enough? We will see. But I don’t expect them to prevail legally, and I don’t expect them to receive a slap on the wrist either.
And in the meantime, they will endure lots of backlash from fans of every club they face, calling them cheats and chanting about it. It is possible that before it is settled legally some of them might crack up and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Guardiola jump ship.
Found innocent by uefa
Fuck off Pep
The punishment I would like to see for Man City would be:
Relegation. Preferably not just down one level, as they will right that in one season. Ideally to the bottom of the pile, or in old money, the fourth division, so it takes a few years to get back into the big time.
Finances. An independent, Premier League approved auditor, to oversee their finances, at Man City’s expense. This needs to have real teeth and authority, at the risk of further harsh punishment if not adhered to. At the least, it will make sure that Man a city are compliant with whatever regulations are in place, and there can be no fake sponsorships and back channel payments that aren’t all on the books.
Titles stripped. Whatever they won, during the years of cheating, needs to be taken away. League titles, cups, take it all away. And whatever prize money was awarded for those victories should be returned, with interest, in the form of a fine, that would ideally go to grassroots football. That would be massive for the health of the wider game, so something good could come from this.
Titles awarded to all runners up. Everyone who finished second to a cheating Man City will be awarded those titles. This is preferable to me than no winner, as even the runners up will have worked hard to achieve that, so being robbed by a cheating Man City should be put right. However… as everyone can see, it will never be completely put right because the sense of victory and celebration will not be there, so they will all have been robbed too. But having the medals awarded is better than not having the medals awarded, even if it could never feel the same.
Fund set up. Man City should also be fined a large amount, and with the proceeds a fund should be set up for anyone who wishes to sue them. Relegation? Didn’t make Europe? Didn’t get a win bonus? Etc. There almost no end to this category of person or team who will have suffered, due to Man City’s cheating, but to draw a line under it there should either be a class action, or a fund set up to compensate people accordingly.
I would like to see something like that lot coming their way. If it is significantly less, the repercussions will be widely felt, and the Premier League might even be in danger of losing many of its legacy clubs.
Man City are in big trouble, no doubt about it.
Simon Jordan is one of the only ones who speaks clearly and forthrightly about Man City NOT being exonerated by UEFA, but instead, having got off by certain technicalities and time barring.
Guardiola should be challenged by journalists on this, and it should not be allowed to stand that they were proven innocent before, as they were not.
Peppy piping up…we will be found innocent…and we will prove it…are u really so sure…mind it’s shitty…so anything could happen.
Maybe not for us who have first hand experience of what happened but for the future generations, it’s important to set the record straight. It’s not just the right and fair thing to do but it’s also about making sure that future fans will have a better understanding of the club’s success and history.
If found guilty, should city players and ex players return their medals?
Yes. Returning medals should be part of the punishment. Presumably that will stir up issues between player and club, and there might be subsequent legal action for Abu Dhabi to face, from within their own club.
Edit:
If for some reason the medals are not returned, the Man City player would still be punished, as the awarding body would not see their medal as legitimate, and their name would be erased from those years in the record books.
love all these ideas but none of that will happen.
I think it will be fine, transfer ban and points deduction.
They wont be relegated or stripped of titles unfortunately.
A fine,transfer ban and points deduction says more than just guilty.It says everything you have achieved since 2009 has been the result of breaking the rules of the competitions you have entered.Surely everything that has been achieved since that date needs to be taken away.
While you may be right and they don’t get taken away,how do the premier league square that to all the other teams and their fans who competed fairly and honestly in the competition since 2009.
Pep said;
“This happened with UEFA, it is the same,” he said. "The same articles, the same accusations. We will defend ourselves like what happened in the UEFA situation.
“I am fully convinced that we will be innocent. Since Abu Dhabi took over the club, it has been like that since day one.”
Does someone need to explain to him they weren’t cleared of the UEFA situation, and their defence of the situation was to stall the process as much as possible and allow the time bar to fall in place?
No, they are not “plans”. They are comments from a marketing company saying “if I was allowed to design it this is what I think I could make the most money from.”
When ‘athletes’ were found to have won gold, silver or bronze, medals by cheating…the medal and the record (if any) were deleted from the records and then the gold, silver and bronze awarded to the athlete that should have won fairly and squarely…it doesn’t take much does it to carry out this transfer…but I guess the shitty will fight it…it’s simple really isn’t it???
"Declaring that they have “listened to the world’s reaction to the Lance Armstrong affair,” leaders of the international governing body for cycling today said that no one will be awarded the seven Tour de France titles that have been stripped from Armstrong’s records because of the doping scandal surrounding the one-time superstar.
The International Cycling Union’s management committee said it understands that “a cloud of suspicion would remain hanging over this dark period [1998-2005] — but that while this might appear harsh for those who rode clean, they would understand there was little honor to be gained in reallocating places."”
Cycling was different because by the time they were stripping them from Lance all the other top riders in line to benefit had themselves been found guilty of doping offense. Rather than doing the absurd thing of going all the way down to the also rans to award the title to they just said left them open.
Italian football is a better marker. Juventus were stripped of 2 titles. The first was left open because Milan in second place were also implicated in the scandal. The second title though was awarded to Inter. I would not value any of these titles, and in some ways think our history is enhanced by not being given them and instead remembered as the clean side who pushed a fully doped side to wintin millimeters of 3 titles, but there is precedent for it.
The 05/06 title was awarded to Inter who finished in 3rd spot.Why not also give a title to 3rd spot from the previous year 04/05.I think the reason was because the ruling was made just after that 2nd season(05/06) had finished and as such it was still within that moment as the next season hadn’t yet started.
While i can understand titles not been awarded to runners up etc,would the lance armstong cheating be seen in a similar light though as it covered a number of years,Are there any conclusions we can take/draw from how that was viewed and punished.
Pep should go work for the Government.