The Man City verdict poisons an entire Premier League era

"I wish from deep in my heart to go to the trial, the independent panel and as soon as possible they release what happened, and we will accept like we always have done," Pep Guardiola said in August 2024. That and the fact that, according toThe Athletic, they have only been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges.

A serial champion club has reportedly been found guilty of such serious charges that there should be no upper limit to the punishments under discussion should their appeal not succeed. As Brian Clough famously said to Leeds United's players: "You can throw your medals in the bin because they were won by cheating.

" But the greatest crime here does not lie in the hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence that an independent panel has been sifting through for so long we have all grown a little longer in the tooth and greyer in the hair.