Dock points for NINE years, force Abu Dhabi owners to sell up and a walk of shame down to League TWO: Our experts have their say on Man City’s fate after club found guilty of £900m ‘sham’

English football was left stunned on Tuesday with the verdict that Manchester City cooked the books to the tune of £900m in a nine-year period peppered with ‘sham’ sponsorship deals, all in a bid to pump money into the club and swerve Premier League spending rules. 

City were found guilty of ‘all charges related to serious breaches’ of the regulations and the majority of those in relation to its failure to co-operate with the competition’s probe.

The club will appeal against the verdict, but with a sanctions hearing due before that appeal is heard, our experts have their say on what the punishment should be…

IAN HERBERT: The owners must be forced to sell… but rivals should say no to compensation

The Premier League should relegate Manchester City and make the provision for them to face a 20-point deduction in each of the next three seasons. Fines and points deductions will be immaterial to them and straight relegation would mean them enjoying a joyful next campaign thumping everyone in the Championship. That should not be permissible.

City’s typically aggressive response on Tuesday – alleging bias against them by describing the adjudication panel as a ‘Premier League commission’ – should be deemed an aggravating factor, as should another drawn-out appeal, were that to fail. 

The Independent Football Regulator must force a sale of the club whose Abu Dhabi owners have brought British football into disrepute and breached a signed undertaking to run City with integrity. The club should be stripped of their titles.

For the benefit of the game, other clubs should sign an amnesty agreement, agreeing not to further line lawyers’ pockets by seeking compensation.

OLIVER HOLT: Start again in League Two – and yes, they should be stripped of titles

Like a lot of people, I suspect, my views on what should happen to City are hardening as new details of their wrong-doing are released. The scale of it emphasises the extent of the advantage they gained.

It also emphasises how difficult it was for those abiding by the rules to compete with City. If City’s appeal fails, they should be expelled from the Premier League and made to start again in League Two. 

Instinctively, I don’t like the idea of stripping a club of titles won but I don’t see any alternative in this case. The fault in those punishments is that the fans, who are blameless in all this, pay the price. 

But the ownership should be made to pay a price, too. They cannot be allowed to remain as custodians of a great club they have brought so low. 

TOM COLLOMOSSE: Guarantee relegation – then make the system fairer

Speed is essential here. For too long, too many commentators have responded to every development in this saga with ‘Oh, it will take years.’ Enough of that, for Goodness sake.

We have already taken far too much time to reach this point and waiting for more months or – God forbid – years for the outcome will do untold damage, not only to the Premier League but to English football. Of course, Manchester City have the right to appeal. But if someone is found guilty of a crime, the sentence arrives before the appeal. If the opposite happens in this case, it will lead only to more chaos.

Sergio Aguero’s famous goal against QPR in 2012 gave City their first league title since 1968

The punishment should come swiftly and should be a points deduction this season large enough that relegation is virtually guaranteed. That should be followed by a points deduction next season, and a fixed compensation bill to all affected clubs – as proposed by former Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow. This is far more effective than stripping titles.

Finally, we need a more equitable system of financial rules. It feels uncomfortable that clubs like Tottenham and Manchester United can underperform season on season yet continue to spend vast sums on transfers just because they generate huge revenue off the pitch.

A fairer system will go a long way to stopping any repeat of the Manchester City case.

KIERAN GILL: One big points deduction… and a multi-window transfer ban

If Manchester City are to win on appeal, it needs to be based on the actual evidence, not on them trying to find a technicality to do with impartiality or whatever else they can conjure. Their reputation is already in the mud after that verdict from the independent commission. 

Their only way back is by winning fairly; not by continuing to try to thwart the investigation. If their guilt is upheld, then they should not be a Premier League club for at least one season. 

So in my mind, a hefty points deduction, circa 60-70 points, would be sufficient for a start. Along with a multi-window transfer ban, the stripping of the titles won (they would be tainted anyway and I would not re-allocate those titles to the runners-up), and I could not see how their ownership could remain the same. 

Too harsh? If ultimately guilty, City will have been found to have deliberately sabotaged so many years of football for not only their own supporters but us all.

LEWIS STEELE: Dock points for nine years… and City’s current stars need answers

They should be docked points nine years in a row (given that’s how many years they were cheating for). A simple relegation is like a slap on the wrist: they would waltz the Championship and be fighting for Europe again within 18 months. 

Elliot Anderson is among the Man City stars who may want answers from the club’s ownership

They have duped their rivals for a decade so should be punished accordingly. City fans — many of whom are in denial — are right to feel aggrieved but their anger should not be directed at the Premier League but the men that have run their club into the ground. 

I also feel sorry for the likes of Enzo Maresca, Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernandez etc — the people who have just joined the club and been lied to by the owners (it seems). Surely they have a claim? 

MATT BARLOW: Play in the Championship next season – and put an asterisk next to all their titles

Cheating on such a vast and systematic scale demands a severe penalty with sporting consequences. Otherwise, what’s the point of anybody following the rules? 

Money is no object to Manchester City’s owners. It defies the essence of sport if they can effectively pay to play by different rules. City should be expelled from the Premier League and all the titles won during the contaminated era should be asterisked.  Swindon were denied entry to the top flight in 1990 for breaking financial rules.

I’m not sure how Chelsea escaped sporting penalty for their recent case, but that’s another story. City should start next season in the Championship. I can’t see a point in sinking them any further down the EFL food chain just to watch them squirm. 

But all future accounts should be subject to scrutiny by football’s authorities to make sure they do not reoffend. I don’t think we should start meddling to redistribute titles, for where does that begin and end? But I expect there will be clubs seeking compensation. It’s easy to see why they will be aggrieved but at the same time a very depressing prospect. 

Man City could be playing in the second tier for the first time since the 2001-02 season, when Eyal Berkovic and Shaun Goater were part of the squad which won promotion as champions

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Repay the rest of the pyramid by putting them in League Two

How to solve a problem like Manchester City? Turn them into a solution. To my mind, one season to the Championship isn’t severe enough for cheating that stretched across nine and has had residual benefits up to the present day. 

So here’s an idea: a walk of shame to match the sham and one that feeds a financial boost to the lowest reaches of the pyramid.

The thought hinges on expulsion from the Premier League, if the guilty verdict remains intact after the appeals process. 

Measures could be taken in the interim to prevent a tainted champion for 2026-27, such as a severe points deduction, with the expulsion occurring next summer (an optimistic timeline, perhaps).

The question then would be one of where to insert the club, which falls on the EFL. My suggestion is an immediate drop to League Two, guaranteeing City spend at least three seasons in the EFL before securing enough promotions to return to the Premier League. 

The interest in the EFL in that period will be huge, as will the financial reward for each club they visit on their way back.