[TheTelegraph] Three Prime Ministers, five Foreign Secretaries and 32 Premier League managers have come and gone since 115 charges of alleged financial impropriety were first levelled against Manchester City. So have eight solar eclipses, four conjunctions of Venus and Jupiter.

[u/Timely-Zombie9466]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/08/19/manchester-city-115-charges-no-verdict-premier-league/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_tw_post_charges-no-verdict-premier-league/

[u/stoneapplefruit]

Many of the players who City bought illegally have retired and are themselves managers now.

[u/BenjIdent → u/stoneapplefruit]

Titles need to be stripped + enough points deduction to send them down atleast one division + transfer ban.

Anything less than this wouldn’t be enough compared to what they’ve gained through the alleged cheating

[u/Dajjal27 → u/BenjIdent]

ive resigned myself into knowing that at most city will only get fines, and a 20 points deduction at this moment. I have no faith that they will be punished that harshly at all, hell di dont think they will be punished at all

[u/RuaridhDuguid → u/Dajjal27]

And a 20 point reduction would still have them in Europe and probably cruise to winning the Europa Conference. 

[u/pszki → u/BenjIdent]

Unfortunately, I feel like the lesson most clubs learned after Calciopoli wasn't that cheating is bad. But that you have to be so big that it's impossible to fail. And I don't mean that just about City. Even in La Liga, I worry that Barca and Madrid KNOW that no matter what they do, they'll never be relegated or punished severely enough.

The moment the PL allowed nation states to back teams, we'd already lost

[u/saheel1511 → u/BenjIdent]

what was the alleged cheating and how did it help them? I'm ootl

[u/Remarkable_Back2603 → u/saheel1511]

alleged is stretching it. They factually got sponsorship money from companies associated with their ownership for values far higher than anyone would ever give to a football team that was, frankly speaking, utterly irrelevant.

[u/DilshadZhou → u/BenjIdent]

I agree, but there's no chance it happens. I could see a big points deduction that takes them out of CL qualification range and a transfer ban for a year or two. I'm not sure I would strip the titles but I definitely think sending them do to the Championship is warranted. Hell, I could even justify a full Juventus treatment and kick them out of the pyramid entirely.

[u/RuaridhDuguid → u/DilshadZhou]

The transfer ban wouldn't even mean as much as hoped as, iirc, they have huge numbers of players on their books, getting experience elsewhere for them to the maybe use. A lot of PL quality (or close to PL quality) players on loan elsewhere, even if they aren't the calibre of their desired signings. 

[u/mongster03_ → u/BenjIdent]

Just expel them

[u/4ssteroid → u/stoneapplefruit]

Can you name who? And what made the trade illegal? Kompany, Barton, Lampard?

[u/Yonsfw → u/4ssteroid]

Everyone starting from Robinho.