Jamie Carragher has publicly urged that Manchester City be stripped of the honours they have amassed after an independent commission concluded that the club committed serious breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations. The commission’s investigation covered the period from the 2009/10 season through to 2017/18 – a stretch of nine campaigns during which City collected three Premier League crowns, one FA Cup, three League Cups and a Community Shield. While the club has denied any wrongdoing, it has announced its intention to appeal the decision and has until Friday, 2 October, to lodge that appeal. The next step will be a further hearing where the commission will determine the exact sanctions.
Potential penalties range from points deductions and hefty fines to transfer bans and even expulsion from the top flight. One of the most dramatic possibilities is that the titles and trophies could be taken away entirely. This raises a host of questions about how the record books would be altered and which clubs would benefit.
Manchester City secured three league championships in the window under scrutiny. The first came in 2012 when a dramatic late goal from Sergio Agúero on the final day edged them past Manchester United. Two years later, in the 2013/14 season, City finished two points ahead of Liverpool to claim the title. Their most dominant performance arrived in 2017/18 when they amassed a record 100 points, once again denying United the crown.
If those titles were simply handed to the runners‑up, Manchester United would see two additional trophies added to their tally – one for the Sir Alex Ferguson era and another for Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s spell – pushing the club’s total to fifteen Premier League crowns. Liverpool would also be awarded a second title, taking their count under Jürgen Klopp to two. However, stripping City of their championships does not automatically mean that the league tables would be rewritten and every club below them would move up one spot.
A precedent exists from Italy, where Juventus were stripped of the 2004/05 Serie A title after the Calciopoli scandal and the championship was left vacant. The English authorities could adopt a similar approach, leaving the 2012, 2014 and 2018 titles unassigned rather than re‑allocating them. Another, more radical, option would be to expunge City’s league record for the nine seasons in question.
This would involve removing every match result involving City from the official tables, thereby reshuffling points totals and final positions for all other clubs. Even in such a scenario, Manchester United and Liverpool would likely emerge as the de‑facto champions for the seasons in which City originally finished first, because they were the next highest placed teams. The ripple effects of erasing City’s results would be far‑reaching.
For example, Blackpool, who were relegated in the 2010/11 campaign, would have avoided the drop if City’s points were removed, while Wolves would have been the club to go down instead. Everton’s European hopes were also repeatedly compromised; in four of the nine seasons under review, City finished above Everton, pushing the Merseyside side out of the qualification spots for the UEFA competitions. In the 2013/14 season, Everton finished fifth and earned a place in the Europa League, but the top four – including City – qualified for the Champions League, meaning Everton missed out on the more lucrative tournament. Tottenham Hotspur experienced a similar fate.
In four separate seasons during the period, City’s superior league position kept Tottenham out of the Champions League, consigning the North London club to the Europa League each time. Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea also missed out on Champions League football in various seasons because City occupied a higher slot in the table.
The impact extended beyond continental competition. Liverpool, Manchester United, Swansea City and Southampton all saw their chances of European qualification curtailed by City’s dominance.
Even cup competitions were affected. In 2011, Tony Pulis was managing Stoke City when City defeated them 1‑0 in the FA Cup final, delivering the club its first major trophy in 35 years. Pulis later described the result as leaving Stoke "cheated" of a historic triumph. City’s three League Cup victories – over Sunderland in 2014, Liverpool in 2016 and Arsenal in 2018 – as well as their 2012 Community Shield win against Chelsea, also altered the silverware landscape for those opponents.
Sunderland, for instance, have not lifted a major trophy since their 1973 FA Cup triumph, a drought that would have been broken had they won the 2014 League Cup. Jürgen Klopp was denied his first piece of silverware when City won the 2016 League Cup on penalties at Wembley, and Arsène Wenger missed out on a fitting farewell trophy in his final season at Arsenal when City prevailed in the 2018 final. If the titles were removed, the historical narrative of English football in the 2010s would look markedly different.
The era would be remembered less for City’s record‑breaking points totals and more for the clubs that might have risen in their stead. The debate over whether to leave the championships vacant or to reassign them to the runners‑up continues to provoke strong opinions among fans, pundits and former players alike.
Beyond the immediate sporting consequences, there would be financial ramifications. Premier League prize money, broadcasting revenue and sponsorship deals are all tied to league position and trophy success. Clubs that would have been retroactively awarded titles could claim a share of the lost earnings, while City would face significant fines and possibly a transfer embargo that could affect their ability to sign new players for several seasons. In summary, the potential stripping of Manchester City’s Premier League titles and other trophies would trigger a cascade of changes across the English football landscape.
Whether the authorities decide to leave the championships vacant, hand them to the runners‑up, or erase City’s results entirely, the impact would be felt not only in the record books but also in the financial health of clubs, the careers of players and managers, and the memories of supporters who lived through that decade of competition.