EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsIt was one of the Premier League's most iconic moments: May 2014 and Steven Gerrard, Liverpool's heroic captain, finally lifts the Premier League trophy alongside manager Brendan Rodgers, who ended the club's quarter-century wait to become champions of England once again. What a story.England's fallen giants were back on their perch, and Gerrard, the greatest player never to win a title medal, was able to put the seal on a glorious career with the one major honor missing from his collection. Except it didn't happen. Just like Jose Mourinho winning his fourth Premier League title with Manchester United didn't happen four years later.Perhaps in a parallel universe Liverpool are listed as 2013-14 Premier League champions and United in 2017-18, but in the real world, Manchester City came out on top on both occasions and on many more. But did they really?The news that City are expected to be found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges related to breaching Premier League financial regulations between 2009 and 2018 -- neither City nor the Premier League deny the verdict of the independent panel -- means that everything they achieved during that period is now in question. City have consistently denied all the charges and are expected to appeal the verdict.Forget the asterisks next to those title wins and cup triumphs -- those moments that have been imprinted forever on the fabric of English football. The imprints are still there -- they will never go away -- but neither will the stain and the stench of being found guilty of breaking the rules -- cheating -- to claim their own glorious moments and, just as importantly, deny others from experiencing them.So next time you see a replay of Sergio Aguero's famous title-winning goal in the final seconds of the 3-2 win against Queen's Park Rangers on the final day of the 2011-12 season, ask yourself whether it is valid. Or more likely, the footage becomes nothing more than the Premier League's version of Ben Johnson sprinting to gold in the 1988 Olympics 100-meter final or any of the seven consecutive Tour de France wins by Lance Armstrong between 1999 and 2005.Johnson and Armstrong were both unmasked as drug cheats and stripped of their titles. That may yet happen to City when the Premier League rolls out its sanctions for the industrial scale breaches that the club has been found guilty of -- massive fines and points deductions which could lead to relegation are likely -- but the problem is that nobody really remembers who came second in an unfair race.Who did Armstrong beat into second place in those seven successive wins? Good luck answering that without using Wikipedia. But for those like Gerrard, Rodgers and Mourinho, finishing second to City had its costs and real-life consequences.Gerrard would retire without ever having won the Premier League, and he has since admitted that his slip in a 2-0 home defeat against Chelsea, which tilted the title race in City's favour, still haunts him every day. Mourinho was fired by United months after finishing second to City in 2018 -- a feat he described at the time as his "greatest achievement" due to the power of his opponent -- while Rodgers never recovered from Liverpool's failure to win the title and was gone from Anfield just over a year later.Former United defender Rio Ferdinand, part of the team that missed out on the title by goal difference to City in 2012, reacted to news of the 114 charges by saying, "Another Premier League medal to be added to the cabinet," while former teammate David de Gea, who finished second in 2012 and 2018, posted on X, "So...Let's talk. How many Premier League titles have I won then?"But it goes deeper than clubs, players and managers who narrowly missed out in second place because City spent beyond their means, paying higher wages and transfer fees because of inflated sponsorship deals and off-the-books payments.Arsenal arguably took a decade to recover from having their squad repeatedly raided by City in the early years of Abu Dhabi ownership, while United have never been the same powerhouse since Carlos Tevez left Old Trafford for City in the summer of 2009, sparking the club's rise to dominance.Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger once used the phrase "financial doping" to describe Chelsea's lavish spending under Russian owner Roman Abramovich -- Mourinho benefited more than most with those millions building his back-to-back title-winning team at Stamford Bridge -- but City took it to a different level.Arsenal were victims of the early spending spree at City, described at the time by then-CEO Garry Cook as the club's "accelerated acquisition strategy," with a succession of players being lured away from the Emirates for huge fees and salaries.Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri all made the move from Arsenal to City during the 2009-2018 period investigated by the Premier League.Arsenal needed the money after borrowing funds to build the Emirates, but City -- a team that had not won a trophy since 1976 and had been in the third tier as recently as 1999 -- suddenly became a dream destination for players and, bankrolled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, they ruthlessly raided Wenger's team time and again to build their own empire and diminish Arsenal's.Arsenal have since recovered, becoming champions again last season under manager Mikel Arteta, who once worked as an assistant coach to Guardiola at City. However, even though the period between 2018 and the present day is not covered by the Premier League investigation, the power and prestige gained by City during that period -- they are the only English club with an unbroken Champions League qualification record since first playing in the competition in 2011 -- made them such a formidable rival for Arteta's team to overcome.Would Guardiola, Erling Haaland, Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Aguero and so many more star names have chosen City over other clubs without the rule-breaking that allowed them to become the most successful team in the country? In a sport where money rules, the answer is an easy one to find.Money has ruled, and City have prospered, but when the expected guilty verdict is made, their achievements will officially have been made by breaking the rules. The price on their ticket will now be a very heavy one.It could mean a massive points deduction that could lead to relegation, huge fines that could financially ruin the club, sponsors deserting due to reputational damage, players wanting to leave, and those who don't might have to go anyway, their salaries no longer affordable.City are likely to face legal action from rival clubs for loss of earnings, titles, European qualification and commercial revenue; the ramifications are endless. In 2024, Arsenal, Liverpool, United and Tottenham served legal notices on City, reserving the right to seek compensation if the club were found guilty of serious charges.City's Abu Dhabi hierarchy may also be driven out of the game for overseeing the prolonged rule-breaking, which makes them unfit for office. If buying City in 2008 really was an Abu Dhabi sportswashing project, designed to polish the Gulf state's global brand, the end result was incalculable damage.Yet even if Gerrard, Rodgers, Mourinho, Ferdinand, De Gea and the rest suddenly wake up one morning to the delivery of an overdue winners' medal, it won't make up for what happened at the time.But if you never see Aguero's title-winning goal replayed on TV again, you now know why.
