Jamie Carragher has publicly urged that Manchester City be stripped of the honours they have amassed after an independent commission concluded the club breached the Premier League's financial regulations in a serious manner. The commission’s findings cover the period from the 2009/10 season through to 2017/18, a span in which City captured three league crowns, one FA Cup, three League Cups and a Community Shield.
While the club continues to deny any wrongdoing, it has announced its intention to appeal the verdict and has been given a deadline of Friday, 2 October, to lodge that appeal. The next step will be a further hearing where the commission will recommend appropriate sanctions. Potential penalties range from hefty fines and points deductions to transfer bans and even expulsion from the top flight. One of the most dramatic possibilities is that the titles and trophies earned during the offending seasons could be taken away.
This raises a host of questions about how the record books would be altered and which clubs might benefit. To understand the impact, it helps to recap City’s achievements in that era. The first of the three Premier League crowns came in the 2011/12 campaign, when a last‑day victory secured by Sergio Aguero’s iconic goal edged Manchester United out of the title race. Two years later, in 2013/14, City finished two points ahead of Liverpool to claim the league.
Their most dominant season arrived in 2017/18, when they amassed a record‑breaking 100 points, again denying United the trophy. If those titles were simply reassigned to the runners‑up, Manchester United would gain two additional championships – one under Sir Alex Ferguson and another under Ole Gunnar Solskjær – taking their total to fifteen. Liverpool would also be awarded a second title, adding to the one they won under Jürgen Klopp.
However, the process of stripping titles does not automatically mean that every club below City would move up a place in the final tables. In some historical cases, such as Juventus’s 2004/05 Serie A title being vacated after the Calciopoli scandal, the championship was left unassigned rather than being handed to the second‑placed side. A similar approach could be taken in England, leaving the 2011/12, 2013/14 and 2017/18 Premier League titles vacant. Another, more radical, option would be to expunge City’s league record for the nine seasons in question.
Removing all of City’s results would alter the points totals and final positions of every other club that season. While this would certainly crown Manchester United and Liverpool as champions in the affected years, it would also have knock‑on effects for European qualification, relegation battles and even individual player statistics.
For example, Blackpool, who were relegated in the 2010/11 season, would have avoided the drop if City’s results were erased, at the expense of Wolves, who would have been pushed into the relegation zone instead. Everton is another club that would have seen its fortunes change dramatically.
In four of the nine seasons under review, Everton missed out on European competition because City finished above them. In the 2013/14 season, Everton finished fifth and qualified for the Europa League; however, the top four – which included City as champions – qualified for the Champions League, meaning Everton missed out on a more lucrative competition. Tottenham Hotspur also suffered during this period.
In four separate seasons, City’s higher league finish kept Tottenham out of the Champions League, consigning them to the Europa League instead. Similarly, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea each lost a Champions League berth at least once because City occupied a higher spot. The ripple effect extended to other clubs as well.
Liverpool, Swansea City and Southampton were denied European qualification in various seasons due to City’s superior placement. Even the 2011 FA Cup final, in which City beat Stoke City 1‑0 to claim their first major trophy in 35 years, left Stoke’s manager Tony Pulis feeling “cheated.” City’s dominance in cup competitions also meant that Sunderland, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea missed out on silverware they might otherwise have claimed. Sunderland, for instance, have not lifted a major trophy since their 1973 FA Cup triumph, and Jürgen Klopp was denied his first piece of silverware when City won the 2016 League Cup on penalties at Wembley. Likewise, Arsène Wenger’s final season at Arsenal ended without a trophy because City defeated them in the 2018 final.
If the titles were stripped and left vacant, the historical record would show gaps for those three seasons, and the clubs that finished second would not automatically be recognized as champions. If the league tables were rewritten, the consequences would be far more complex, affecting not only championship counts but also qualification for the Champions League, Europa League and the financial distributions that accompany those competitions. The debate continues as to which approach would be fairer and more in line with precedent. Regardless of the eventual decision, the situation underscores how financial governance can have profound sporting repercussions.
Fans, clubs and governing bodies will be watching closely as the appeal process unfolds and as the commission finalizes its recommended sanctions. The outcome could reshape the narrative of one of English football’s most successful eras and set a precedent for how serious breaches of financial rules are dealt with in the future.