Arsenal - Premier League title
Arsenal - Premier League title
A guilty verdict answers what happened. It does not yet answer what is taken away. Pundits fill that gap before the commission does.
Stripping a title and awarding it to second place are different arguments. One is about the record. The other is about a medal that was not won on the day.
Children who look up a table in 50 years will not read the hearing notes unless someone writes them in.
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Paul Merson has said the league titles Manchester City won between 2009 and 2018 should be wiped straight away, and not given to the clubs who finished second. An independent commission found City guilty of all charges linked to serious financial breaches over those nine seasons. City deny wrongdoing and have until Friday 2 October to appeal.
The Premier League says sham contracts disguised owner funding and inflated revenues and cut costs by more than £900million. In the title seasons of 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2017-18, City recorded £360million in sponsor fees, of which £43million was legitimate.
Merson told Sky Sports: “First of all, take all their trophies away. I think that’s the first thing.
“It’s not because of us, it’s our childrens’ childrens’ children in 50, 60 or 70 years’ time, if you look through and see that Manchester City dominated, it’s not going to say underneath that they were guilty of anything so I think that’s got to be taken off.
“I’m not saying to go and give those titles to whoever finished second because I think that’s a real kick in the teeth in itself if you go and do that.
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“But I think that’s got to be wiped. For me, in my opinion, that’s got to be wiped off the face that they dominated it by doing what they were doing.
“And rightly so you should dominate football if you’re getting that big an advantage.
“I’d expect to be dominating football, even with me as the manager!”
On Arsenal, he said City were “buying Arsenal’s best players and made it even worse” while Arsène Wenger was building a stadium. “For me, straightaway it would be that taking the title away.”
City’s statement said the club is “disappointed and surprised” and “innocent of the accusations”, and that the opinion contains “clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.”
Richard Masters said the decision “details how the club systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade” and that the sanction is still to be decided.
Merson’s wipe-the-titles line matches one argument already doing the rounds. It is not the commission’s ruling. United or Liverpool would be the clubs who gain a championship if results were voided. Arsenal would not. The former midfielder’s point is the record, not a retrospective trophy for the Emirates. Until the appeal window closes and a sanction hearing sits, wiped titles remain a Sky Sports opinion.
Arsenal corner flag
Arsenal corner flag