Manchester United Supporters Trust have accused Manchester City of 'industrialised cheating' and suggested the club should be expelled from football as punishment after the Premier League found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against them.
Trust statement demands severe sanctions
No official statement has yet been released by the Premier League, while City continue to maintain their innocence. No punishment has been announced, although relegation, a points deduction and a considerable fine have all been mentioned. The process could continue depending on any appeal.
A statement from the trust read: "Manchester City continue to deny wrongdoing and are expected to appeal. They are entitled to do so. But if these findings are upheld, this cannot be dismissed as an accounting error or an accidental breach of complex rules. It would amount to industrialised cheating on an unprecedented scale."
Ownership and trust under scrutiny
The trust also addressed ownership concerns, drawing a contrast with Manchester United's own situation under the Glazer family. The statement said: "For years MUST has argued that ownership matters in football. At Manchester United we have seen one form of bad ownership: the Glazers loading the club with enormous debt while extracting hundreds of millions of pounds through dividends, interest and associated costs."
It added: "At the other extreme are owners who use enormous external wealth to financially dope their clubs and cheat rules designed to protect fair competition. Neither represents proper stewardship of institutions which belong at the heart of their communities."
Punishment must fit the crime
The trust argued that any sanction must remove the advantage gained, not simply impose a temporary inconvenience. "If the findings against Manchester City are upheld, the punishment must fit the crime and act as a genuine deterrent to any owner considering the same route," the statement continued.
"Stripping titles or other retrospective sanctions may form part of that, but the more important question is what happens next. Manchester City has been transformed during this period into one of the most powerful clubs in world football. If industrial-scale cheating helped create that advantage, one season outside the Premier League would plainly leave much of that benefit intact."
Expulsion proposed as sanction
The trust questioned whether City's owners can remain fit to run the club if the findings survive appeal. "If trust cannot be restored while that ownership remains in place, expulsion from the football pyramid unless and until there is a change of ownership should be among the sanctions considered," the statement said.
It concluded: "Football clubs are not ordinary businesses. They are cultural institutions and community assets. Owners who exploit them and extract their wealth are not appropriate custodians. Nor are owners who financially dope them and cheat the rules. Football should tolerate neither. This should be a reset moment to review the ownership of our clubs and the first step is to start to restore trust."
