The main point is Man City are stripped of titles, along with all the other punishments listed.
What happens to the titles is then a fair point of discussion, and I do see both sides. Leave it blank with no winner? It’s a stark reminder of the cheating that happened. Or award the title to the runner up? On balance I’d rather do that, even if it also has some drawbacks.
Remove their name from PL winner, and register it, forever on record and constant reminder, as a default season. Make them pay out to each and every club, that put forward a genuine claim that their club lost out financially because of them.
Large points deduction, divvied across future seasons.
My dad has identified the new anti-city conspiracy - the hearing starting the week City begin their CL campaign. Apparently De Bruyne will be arguing their case during the day at the hearing and then battling Inter at night. Or something
Me
No, when they announced the 115 charges I am sure some of the charges were including the year of the announcement, with those mostly related to effectively not being transparent, since they hadn’t yet had a chance to go through due diligence and identify any charges for that year.
That would also explain why the charge count has now increased to 130.
As for retrospectively awarding titles, I just don’t agree with it. Certainly City must be stripped of their titles if found guilty.
But the entire events of those seasons were defined by City’s cheating. And history absolutely would not have played out the same had teams simply removed their home and away match against City. How would have teams reacted differently coming up against United, Arsenal, Liverpool one week if they hadn’t received a spanking from City the week before? I truly believe in season momentum and you can’t act as if that would have been exactly the same in an alternative universe where City’s 38 matches simply didn’t exist.
Put a strike through City’s wins. Relegate them to the bottom of the pyramid forcing the owners to sell their pet project. That part is key. I don’t want them down 1 division as that’s a slap on the wrists for the owners, as they’ll be back up the following season.
For me the club’s biggest crime is them basically laughing at the rulebook, subverting the rules and never admitting they did anything wrong. Allowing that to continue on the league is a terrible example. The PL needs to find a way to fuck the owners off ASAP.
I also don’t want City dissolved. Keep the club around but make them change their nefarious ways.
I’m ambivalent about it but push come to shove, I would lean towards the titles, if only to have Kloppo back…on an open top bus. He did said he would if we’re to be awarded retrospectively.
Nothing good will come of this (for us at least) but hypothetically, I’d take all of these titles with open arms, provided they also give us the one in 2014, just so that travelling Kop could sing “have you ever seen Gerrard win the league” at Chelsea or whichever ground Stevie was given dog’s abuse at.
It’s a shame that Man United, who were miles off Man City whenever they finished second, would profit from this, even Arsenal didn’t give them a proper run for their money but you have take the rough with the smooth, I guess. That said, these cunts will get away with it, maybe a hefty financial fine and that will be about it.
Ironic statement given that it’s precisely the source of the money that’s the problem.
In any case, the argument can also be made that in a world without the cheating scum then the runners-up would rightly have been champions, even if it was because the rest of the league was shit.
But this is the point, United were still better than everyone else that season. City have distorted the league, expectations and league winning requirements to such an extreme it really isn’t a competition anymore.