- Will the Mancs be stripped of their titles and have points docked?
- Manchester City found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges against them
By Tony Attwood
It is not just that, as we have said since the whole fiasco started, that ManC cheated, cheated, cheated and cheated, and went on cheating without a single media outlet standing up to them, it is that they suggested that if charged they would pull down the whole of the football infrastructure. And then as if that threat were not enough, they wanted to carry on playing without anything be done about them.
In reality the moment they made that threat they should have been kicked out of football, but no, they were allowed to carry on and on and on..
To be clear, in the past we have had corrupt clubs that have cheated in other ways and they have been dealt with over the years. But what ManC have been found guilty of is something on a totally different scale. It is like the government taking all the taxation we pay them, and then giving it to the ministers who then bugger off with our cash.
Perhaps even worse is the fact that they continued to stand up and say, “no it was all fine” when we have all known for so long that it certainly was not, and to threaten to tie football up in the courts for so long that it will die from a lack of finance.
But now the only thing to be resolved is what punishment they should be given.
For myself, and yes this is just me, I think all the titles and cups they have won during this era should be removed from them, and they should also be kicked out of the Premier League. I would then invite the Football League not to accept the club, leaving them to find some other league to play in. As a child I watched Wood Green Town play in the Spartan League. Maybe they’ll have the Mancs.
More, I would say that their ejection from the Premier League and other leagues should not be just for now but for 50 years, given the number of offences of which they have been found guilty. In 50 years time a ManC club could then reapply for entry to the bottom league in the pyramid. That would be their local country feeder league, and by my calculation if they won each league each year then by my calculation if they won each league each year they should be ready for the fourth tier of English football long after I’ve passed away so I won’t have to witness it.
And there should be no delay in this – it needs to happen now.
More, every player, administrator and manager who has been employed by the Mancs in the past eight years should be banned from doing any work in football in any part of the world, for life.
Personally, I think the media have still failed to understand the magnitude of the crimes against football that the ManCs have committed and the utter disgust that many football supporters feel for the level of cheating that the Mancs have employed. Just consider the Guardian’s headline: “The age of asterisk: Manchester City’s glittering era of success is tainted now.”
Tainted? Asterisk??? Whatever subeditor wrote that should be expelled from the world of journalism at once. At least Barney Ronay got a bit closer with “Friday’s verdict against Manchester City will change everything we understood about their Premier League title triumphs”. Banishment from football for life should be just the start.
For what the media has never understood is the level of outrage there is among the fans of other clubs as we have been forced to watch the Mancs cheat, cheat, cheat, cheat and cheat again season after season, while our clubs were forced to just take it on the chin and accept their behaviour.
Even more insulting the Guardian then says, “welcome then, to the age of asterisk.” Asterisk????? This needs to be the age of utter banishment. There are other clubs in the City group all over the place – let them go and play each other with whatever methods of cheating and rule bending they want to employ. We need to be rid of them for good not least to show any other clubs financed by the oil giants, this is what you get.
As the Guardian does later admit “the fact remains, everything is tainted now,” and that means it is going to be the job of the rest of the clubs to clear the mess up. And of course it is everyone else who is going to pay.
Now to be fair, later in its coverage the Guardian does get a bit closer to the mark when they say, “Throw your medals in the bin. You cheated to win them. Whatever that thing was, it’s done. Stolen glory, stolen income, stolen joy. Every chant, every “we won the lot”, every awkward documentary scene about the deep, throbbing heart of this empire of love. It all looks odd, sinister, cold, sloppy, but also, and this is always the best response, utterly absurd.”
And I know it is not usual to quote that much from a paper in a blog, but that is closer to the mark.
And sadly the Guardian is right when it says, “We still work on the principle of innocent until repeatedly proven guilty, pending mega-bucks final appeals.”
That is true, but us supporters, those of us who pay their hard earned cash to get into matches, and to watch away games we can’t get to, on satellite TV, we have all been cheated. Will the Mancs give us our money back? No of course not.
For now it is being suggested that Manc’s league table position position needs to be accompanied by an asterisk. What nonsense. They need to be removed from the league table and from all results. They need to be expelled from all football now. Any reappearance in football by the ManCs will be a sign that football is not strong enough to remove the corruption that has sneaked into its very fabric.
I am sure that the ManC empire can create a new league of its own with all the various clubs is owns across Europe and they can play their own competitions there. And those wretched newspapers that have worshipped their achievements can go on celebrating their football. The rest of us can have actual real football of the type we knew before ManC was taken over.
But let me also quote another line from the Guardian, which I am pleased to see. “Mainly this is a great day for the Premier League, which must be commended above all for its refusal to bend. There has been frustration at the time it has taken to reach this verdict.”
It started eight years ago with Der Spiegel and Rui Pinto the whistleblower. He is called by the Guardian, “football’s greatest vigilante” and that is true. He now has to live in hiding and in secret, but Untold, like the Guardian, raises its glass to him today.
Well done mate. You got the bastards.
