Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City should be stripped of their titles, but doesn't want to see any of them handed to his former club.
City have lodged an appeal after an independent commission found them guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League financial rules over a period between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons. Should the initial decision be upheld, the Etihad outfit are facing an unprecedented level of sanctions which could include relegation, a points deduction, a transfer ban and a significant fine.
Carragher's stance on title redistribution
There have been calls for City to be stripped of their Premier League titles won over the past 15 years, with some suggesting the trophies should instead be handed to teams who finished second during a period in which three times Liverpool took them to the last game of the season when finishing runners-up.
But Carragher claims that could unfairly benefit other clubs who finished second a long way behind City in the final table.
"I think the titles should be taken off them," he said. "I find it difficult to say what should happen beyond the period in which the charges relate, and people who understand the legal side better than me will probably have a clearer view."
"Should titles be awarded to Liverpool? I wouldn't particularly want that. It doesn't feel right. Maybe that is my Liverpool bias coming out, but Liverpool were in title races with City and sometimes lost by a point or two."
"My argument is that City had two or three extra players because of the money they were able to spend, and that could have been what got them over the line."
"But if another team finished 20 or 25 points behind City, it doesn't feel right to simply award them the title. I don't think finishing second should automatically mean you get the league."
Call for long-term punishment
If City's appeal fails, Carragher believes their punishment should be enforced to run over several seasons.
"It cannot just be a case of giving them 80 or 100 points and relegating them for one season, only for them to win the Championship and come straight back up," he said.
"It isn't about trying to destroy the club, but what they have done has gone on for so long, and the punishment has to reflect that. You are talking about something over three to five years."
"One option would be to send them down to League Two and make them work their way back up. Another would be to give them a points deduction at the start of each season for three to five seasons. You would effectively be putting them back where they were before, potentially as a mid-table Premier League club, and making them rebuild."
Owners urged to leave
Speaking to the Overlap Daily in association with Sky Bet, Carragher also suggested City's Abu Dhabi owners must now leave for the good of the club.
"If they had admitted what they had done and accepted their punishment while arguing that the rules were wrong, I think they would have taken a lot of people in football with them," he said. "Instead, I think they are going to drag the game down with them."
"That is why I think they have to go. They are so powerful and so rich that they have never been told no. They bought the club as a public-relations scheme, and now they have to keep fighting because they have gone too far to back down."
"Even if they lose, I think they will keep saying the Premier League is against them, and this could drag on for years."
