Jamie Carragher has said Manchester City should face a punishment spanning several years if their appeal against the Premier League charges fails. The former Liverpool defender was speaking after an independent commission found the club guilty of breaking league rules in a strongly-worded report released last week.
Carragher calls for lengthy sanction
City were found to have inflated revenue by more than £830million over a nine-season period between 2009-10 and 2017-18. The club have appealed against the verdict, and Carragher believes any sanction should reflect the scale of the breaches.
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, the 48-year-old said: “If the people talk about (a penalty of) 80 points or 100 points, but that’s just over one season that gets you relegated and then you come back again.
“And I think players, a few of them would leave, but I think some of them would say, ‘I could put up with that for a year’.
“But I think, because this has gone on for so long, I do think the punishment should be over a number of years, three to five years, and then players would move on.”
Hostile Anfield atmosphere expected
City return to action this weekend when they face Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday. Former City defender and manager Stuart Pearce expects a hostile atmosphere at Anfield and believes manager Enzo Maresca should try to use that to his advantage.
“The opposition, they’ll be rolling their sleeves up,” Pearce said. “The atmosphere in the stadiums is going to be red hot. It’s unbelievable it happens to be Liverpool this weekend. It’s going to be electric.
“So it’s going to stimulate everybody else against City, and it’s got to stimulate City against everyone else.”
Mixed emotions for former City player
Former City player Nico Gonzalez admitted he has “mixed emotions” about what is happening at his old club. The 24-year-old midfielder joined Newcastle from City at the end of August for a reported fee of up to £52million and has featured four times for the Magpies so far this campaign.
Gonzalez’s move came following 18 months with City, having joined the club in February 2025 on deadline day and gone on to make nearly 60 appearances.
The Spaniard said in an interview with Sky Sports News: “It’s hard for me because I have mixed emotions.
“I really want them to succeed, not only my old team-mates but people that work there. I had a year and a half there and I built so many connections and so many relationships.
“I will always wish them the best personally. But obviously I’m just a player, I can’t say ‘this has to be the punishment or there has to be a punishment’. I don’t know what to say because I’m not aware of everything.”
