Shameless Man City cheated us all - Prem titles are now worthless and must be stripped

In black and white, it takes your breath away.

The words look more from a White House political scandal rather than football. The most telling words of all: “The £900m sham.” The Premier League’s statement was not just damning - it absolutely torched Manchester City.

The sheer scale of sham contracts, false accounting, cover-ups, lying witnesses and deception is mind-blowing. This is fraud on an industrial scale. The 40 page document spelling out the verdict, the case and the evidence which brought the 115 charges is an astonishing read in itself.

The Premier League has bared its teeth - and they have been absolutely brutal in their summing up. They have taken their time - but this absolutely destroys Manchester City.

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It attacks Project Longbow. It even attacks the ownership and Abu Dhabi state-owned companies and sponsorship. State ownership is now allowed - and so this part could have wider ramifications. The 40 page document is staggering in its detail and accusations.

It destroys the club’s reputation, mocks its protestations and makes it clear enough is enough.

City have until Friday to appeal - and then an appeal board will be set up to resolve the case “as soon as possible.” The reality is that their defiant counter statement - which says the club is still in denial - makes it clear they will appeal. So, we will have to wait longer for an outcome.

But the Premier League has been accused of a slow process, dragging football through the mud by taking too long and getting tied down by lawyers. And yet now, by comparison, they are going at a turbo-charged pace. They have given City just days to appeal.

It feels obvious why: they are determined to make them pay and hit them with the hardest punishment possible.

This case could bring down City as a football club as we know it, its owners and the language used makes it feel impossible for them to continue in the Premier League under this ownership.

It is that severe. It is that damning. It is hard to know how City pick themselves up and go again under the Abu Dhabi ownership.

The statement talks about “sham” contracts and “sham” agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs. The club filed misstated accounts and “concealed” the true state of its finances from auditors and football regulators. And it says “Manchester City was significantly in breach of both the Premier League’s and UEFA’s spending limits” before saying the club misled the investigation.

How on earth does a club come back from that? How does an ownership come back from that? Answer is you cannot.

City have to be relegated. That must come with a points deduction and a severe punishment to ensure that this goes just one season on the naughty step. We are talking nine years of deception from 2009 to 2018 and the punishment has to reflect that.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said: “It also vindicates the Premier League’s decision to pursue this case against Manchester City.

“While the process to date has been both long and difficult, the League has remained determined that the facts be established independently.”

He is right. Yes, it has taken too long. But they had to get the investigation and process right. Now the Premier League has been vindicated. They have to throw the book at City - and make sure there is no way back. They have cheated us all. They have cheated their way to trophies and success.

I have not been in favor of stripping titles - and this verdict and the document and detail has changed my mind. It goes beyond titles having an asterisk. They are now worthless.