Cameron Leeming

When Leeds City FC broke the rules against paying players during World War 1, the club were deleted out of existence. When #LUFC overspent in the late 1990s/early 2000s, Leeds had to sell their best players for peanuts and were docked 25 point on their way to League One. Today, according to the independent commission, Manchester City have been found to have artificially inflated their revenue by approximately £900 million, all while conspiring to cover their tracks and stop the investigation. This sort of financial obfuscation implies that they knew the rules down to the penny, conspiring to break those rules with mathematical precision. How do you find a punishment fit for that level of financial cheating? The legal repercussions are serious too. When Burnley sued Everton and won a £35.1 million payout - that set a legal precedent. Manchester City and their rivals for the years between 2009-2018, will likely be locked in legal battles for years to come. Or City’s rivals may choose to join together in a group litigation order. Should Manchester City’s appeal fail, we will likely see one of the largest punishments ever issued to a football club in the modern era. But it will undoubtedly stop short of the archaic measure employed by the English Football League in 1919, of expunging Leeds City Football Club out of existence. And the punishment may not even keep Manchester City out of the Premier League for as long as #LUFC were absent during the early 2000s. But it is difficult to imagine how Manchester City’s honours won during those years be allowed to stand, given the extent of the financial cheating found by the commission. And given their conduct during the investigation, expulsion from the League would be extremely likely, as a points deduction may not be seen to be enough. The details of the crimes as laid out by the commission are staggering. The punishment should be just as staggering.