Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher calls for the removal of Manchester City's owners after they were found guilty of breaking over 100 financial rules by the Premier League this week
Jamie Carragher (Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)
Jamie Carragher (Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)
View Image
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City are "in denial" over their Premier League guilty verdict and believes the club's Abu Dhabi ownership should be removed from their position.
On Tuesday, the Premier League confirmed that City had been found guilty of breaking financial rules between 2009 and 2018, artificially inflating their commercial revenue through what have been termed "sham contracts" to the tune of £830m.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the verdict that was published on Tuesday "details how the club systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade", while claiming the organisation had been "vindicated" for their investigation, which began three years ago after leaked emails were made public by German publication Der Spiegel in 2018.
The Independent Football Regulator, which was set up in July 2025, published their own statement on the decision on Wednesday and the body has the power to remove directors and executives if they are deemed to be unfit.
And writing in his latest Telegraph column, Carragher believes the episode should now mark the end for Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) at the Etihad.
Carragher writes: "Manchester City are at the beginning of the end of their Abu Dhabi era.
"The club can only heal and recover from the shame of its guilt once the custodians recognise they have failed in their duty and sell up.
"City fans, grateful for the years of success under Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, may struggle to accept that reality. It is not an opinion.
"The Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test makes clear the repercussions for breaking the fundamental rules that all member clubs, including City, established and signed up to.
"Anyone who falls short must be disqualified from being a Premier League director or owner – otherwise, the regulations are not fit for purpose.
"There is no way to sugarcoat this. The scale of the institutional cheating and lack of co-operation with the investigation means the position of all involved City executives is untenable.
"Fighting on will only prolong the agony of supporters who wrongly believed their pleas of innocence.
"By proving the case, the independent panel demonstrated how City effectively duped their fans and some of their greatest players and coaches, all of whom were persuaded the rules were followed.
"Until City accept what they have done, the club and English football cannot move on, restore trust, or begin a prolonged rehabilitation process."
Carragher, who made 737 appearances for the Reds across a decorated career, added: "The shameless defiance following a damning verdict was only marginally less shocking than the Premier League statement confirming the outcome.
"City are in denial, refusing to acknowledge their reputation is shattered after being found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges against them.
"Ferran Soriano, City’s chief executive, sounded more like Donald Trump referring to 'conspiracies' and issuing a series of 'alternative facts'.
"His statements were delusional and factually incorrect when he insisted they did no wrong and attempted to present the verdict as an 'opinion', when it is rooted in years of investigations and legal arguments.
"The immediate response from the rest of the football world is disbelief at the scale of the indiscretions and the language used to expose it.
"Even those of us who long suspected City were inflating the value of their commercial revenues - illogically claiming they were earning more from that source than the world’s biggest club, Real Madrid - are taken aback by how emphatic the Premier League statement is."
City deny all charges and plan to appeal before Friday's deadline.