Manchester City were found guilty of 114 breaches of the Premier League's financial rules between 2009 and 2018, but questions remain over their accounting in the years that followed. The independent commission found that for the 2017/18 season - a season which ended with Pep Guardiola winning the first of his six Premier League titles - City recorded sponsorship income as £145.73million. Only £11m of that was genuine; the other £134.73m was paid by the club owners.
Of the nine seasons of financial transgressions, this was City's crowning effort. Their previous 'record' had come in the 2016/17 season when they added £129.59 million to the real sponsorship figure of £11m. It was clearly building towards a crescendo of cheating.
What happened after 2017/18?
Because the investigation, the hearing and the verdicts have taken so long - a total of eight years in the making - one of the understandable reactions is to be thankful the matter is reaching some sort of conclusion. And it truly is a seismic conclusion. But even when the sanctions have been handed out, this cannot be the end of the matter. City's accounts for every season since 2017/18 have to be forensically re-examined. And then re-examined again.
Seriously, are we to believe they decided to go straight at the start of a 2018/19 season that brought another Premier League title? Seriously, are we to believe they abided by every financial rule when winning Premier League titles in 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24?
The Guardiola era tainted
Regardless of the financial machinations during the post-charges period, the past eight full seasons - during which City won five Premier Leagues, three FA Cups, four League Cups and a Champions League - have been tainted by the crushing 'sham' verdict. Actually, not tainted. Sullied, poisoned, rendered irrelevant. The whole Guardiola era of domestic dominance and European competitiveness was built on a foundation of monumental deceit. Did that deceit just stop in 2018?
Since that 2017/18 season, City have spent £1.65billion on a procession of elite players. They spent £100m on Jack Grealish in the summer of 2021. They bought Enzo Fernandez for £125m a couple of months back. He followed Elliot Anderson, who had moved from Nottingham Forest for £116m.
Are they still cheating?
The same executives who were, presumably, responsible for the 'sham' contracts in the period investigated by the commission were still there post-2017/18. It is hard to believe they suddenly saw the error of their ways and transformed into sticklers for the regulations. It is hard to believe they saw the light. Perhaps they did. Well, let's see the figures to prove it. Because right now, it is not just the Aguero moment that has one of sport's biggest asterisks next to it.
It is the four in a row, it is everything that Guardiola achieved during his entire tenure at the club. Understandably, most people think it would be ideal if the sanctions could be imposed, accepted by the club, leaving everyone to get on with the business of enjoying football. But that is not going to happen. And nor should the damning verdict - and subsequent punishment - be the end of the matter. Far from it. City will run out at Anfield on Sunday week to the most toxic of welcomes.
Erling Haaland and his team-mates would argue they knew nothing about it and were told by those executives that the club had done nothing wrong. Anyhow, Haaland and his colleagues will protest, this is a different time. Only it's not. We now know City cheated. What we need to know next is... are they still cheating?
