Man City FFP: Souness claims ‘legacy gone’ as PL told to give unique nine-year punishment

Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has hit out at Manchester City after it was reported that they have been found guilty of breaching FFP rules.

Towards the end of last week, it was reported that Man City have been found guilty on 114 of their 115 charges after being accused of breaching the Premier League’s FFP regulations.

This verdict is yet to be officially announced, but Man City face severe sanctions if they are deemed guilty to such an extent and if an appeal fails.

This hangs a dark cloud over Man City after their period of domination under Pep Guardiola, and their potential punishments include a fine, transfer ban, points deduction, expulsion and/or being stripped of their Premier League titles.

Souness thinks Man City being stripped of their titles would be a suitable punishment, with their “legacy gone”.

“The legacy is gone. If it goes the wrong way for them they’ll be consigned to history that they were cheats and whatever they did, whatever they won in that period, should not count,” Souness told Track Radio.

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“There’s an argument for Liverpool to have a couple of Premier Leagues given to them.

“For them [City] to be stripped of whatever they’ve won in that period of time, for them… money’s not an issue.

“So whatever fine is just like a scratch in the surface. Relegation [as an option]… I don’t know.

“But I come back to it. I think this is going to open a can of worms, which I think may go well beyond the realms of football.”

Premier League told to give ‘unique punishment’ to Man City

Alternatively, fellow pundit Danny Mills has argued that Man City should be ‘slapped’ with a ‘unique punishment’ that would stop them winning the Premier League title for nine years.

“People are talking about relegating them to the EFL – we know that they’re two separate competitions, two separate bodies,” Mills said on talkSPORT.

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“I just heard from a fan, ‘It would be great for the EFL’. No it wouldn’t. City would bounce straight back immediately, which means instead of two spots available for (automatic) promotion (from the Championship), there would only be one.

“You’re only going to play Manchester City twice that season, so you’re not going to make huge revenue. You’ve only got 20,000 people in your stadium, one sell-out is not going to change your whole season in any way, shape or form.

“You go to City, you’re not going to get any money there anyway because it’s all home gate receipts.

“I was listening over the last few days and I think, once everything has settled, realistically the only way going forward to do this is to maybe look at every season that they allegedly cheated.

“Every season they have cheated, give them a massive points deduction for every season going forward.

“So if they cheated for nine years, give them a 20-point deduction for the next nine years and see how that goes, see where they get to in that.

“There is no fair and just system, because it’s going so far back retrospectively, and it’s going to be very, very difficult because other clubs are going to then complain that they lost out and got relegated, how do you work that out?”

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