Man City’s reported punishment is perfect for the Premier League and joy of everyone watching
While every ex-player and pundit is asked about the appropriate punishment for Manchester City and the rest of us hold similar conversations over the dinner table or down the pub, perhaps we should be asking what would be the most fun.
Being dropped into the lowest League Two reaches of the Football League after being expelled from the Premier League would hit those dopamine receptors like nothing else, but the pleasure would be fleeting.
Although we would revel in away days at Accrington Stanley and Newport County, and League Two would receive coverage like never before, in reality most of us would not get to experience the struggle. We need to see it.
Stripping their titles would be good; better if Amazon Prime commission a documentary following a team of bailiffs around Cheshire to recover the medals on display or hidden in drawers in the mansions of that rolling countryside. “Come on Phil, hand over the silverware or we’re taking the car.”
A crippling fine feels like a must, as does a string of transfer bans, to ensure any return to Europe’s top table would be nigh-on impossible for at least the same length of time that they brought the game into disrepute.
But in what has been an expensive and damaging time for the Premier League and its reputation, they could do with a win, and that could come in the form of a Manchester City punishment that will draw further eyeballs for what remains of this season or next, whenever said sanction is delivered.
There has been talk of a 100-point deduction, but then they might as well expel them. What City, the Premier League and those of us watching need is hope, and talkSPORT’s Alan Brazil is the man to deliver that message of optimism, as “heard” from two separate sources.
“I’m hearing a 60-point deduction, which will please people and still give City a chance of surviving,” Brazil revealed on Wednesday.
“I don’t know whether it’s this season. I can’t see how that can be this season because of the timing, when they get it through it’ll be too late.
“Is it next season? But they are talking about a 60-point deduction.”
Ally McCoist insists “people would be looking for a strong punishment than that”, but we’re advocating for a 60-point punishment alongside other sanctions. Maybe they could dock them 60 points for nine consecutive seasons and see how long they can survive. Or make it 60 this season, 50 the next and so on.
But McCoist then hit on the key point.
“I’m not sure it would guarantee [relegation]. You’d have to say it probably would [mean City were relegated]. If you’re staying up with maybe 37, 38, 39 points, it would make it a challenge, put it that way.”
It’s not guaranteed; there’s a chance. The big players, or at least some of them, would stick around to meet that challenge head on.
Success would merely mean Premier League survival, followed by further struggle thanks to the alternative sanctions in place, with a half-filled trophy cabinet and very possibly without their Abu Dhabi owners still in situ as they walk away in ‘disgrace’ after the ’embarrassment’ of the verdict and their pathetic refusal to admit wrongdoing.
Failure would mean relegation, but a far more enjoyable relegation as we will all have witnessed the fight in vain. We can have our cake and eat it too.
Haven’t Manchester City deprived us of enough happiness through cheating people out of trophy wins, memorable victories, European away days and everything else that comes with a fair playing field?
It’s time they were used to our joyful advantage, by giving them a glimmer of hope in what would be the most compelling riches to rags stories in Premier League history.