City's legacy'll be GONE if they lose appeal against PL & Reds could be handed 2 titles as a result

Graeme Souness believes Manchester City's recent legacy will be forever ruined if their guilt in their battle with the Premier League is confirmed.

The Liverpool legend says City should be stripped of their titles – and hand them over to the Reds in the years they beat them to top spot.

City have been found guilty of 114 of their 115 rule-break charges, according to sources, with the club accused of widespread financial cheating over an era of sustained success.

The process will move to an appeal stage, but any eventual punishment could include a fine, points deduction, relegation, or even the stripping of trophies.

Souness told Track Radio: '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.

'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.'

City have publicly maintained their innocence throughout the process, with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak saying last week: 'Our confidence and intent in proving the club's innocence is just as strong as when this began.'

Man City were charged in February 2023 by the Premier League with a hearing concluding in December 2024.

Their statement that February insisted that they were 'surprised' by the charges.

The Premier League accused Man City of multiple breaches of financial rules and of failing to co-operate with a subsequent investigation. The alleged rule breaking was claimed to have taken place over a 14-year period, with the most serious across an eight-year spell.

A three-man panel was tasked with considering the evidence, with the initial expectation a verdict would have been reached on the case within months. It has since taken three-and-a-half years.

The original 115 charges were extended to a total of 130 after an administration issue in what is the most expensive and wide-ranging case in English football history.

City remained steadfast in maintaining their innocence over more than 115 alleged breaches across eight years, some including the start of the Pep Guardiola era.

The club were accused of failing to report accurate financial information for nine seasons stretching from 2009-10 to 2017-18, as well as failing to provide full details of former manager Roberto Mancini’s pay between 2009-10 and 2012-13.

They were also alleged to have failed to provide full details of money paid to players between 2010-11 and 2015-16 and failing to co-operate with the probe from 2018 to 2023.

Between the years mentioned, Manchester City won eight Premier League titles, a Champions League, four FA Cups and seven EFL Cups.

In 2022, Guardiola said he would quit the club if he felt the club's hierarchy had ever lied to him. The next year, he said he would not walk out on his deal, even if he was relegated to League One.

Guardiola always insisted he was 'fully convinced' that the club is innocent and said in May: 'I trust them, I trust them. Because I spoke with them and I trust how they behave and how they did.'

City vehemently denied any breaches of financial rules but the investigation started in December 2018 after German website Der Spiegel published documents from a Football Leaks cache which had originated from Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto.

It alleged that City had overstated sponsorship income with money paid from the club's owners instead of sponsors linked to Abu Dhabi.

Roberto Mancini's wages were said to have doubled via a secret contract with an Abu Dhabi club when he was at Man City, while they were also alleged to have broken rules over approaching young players.

The Mail on Sunday has led the way on reporting the story. In July 2021, they reported on emails that appeared to suggest that Man City had millions funnelled into the club by Abu Dhabi to help inflate their income.

Back in February 2020, the club were banned from the Champions League and fined £25million after they were found to have seriously misled European footballing governing body UEFA and broken financial fair play rules.

This was then lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport which also reduced the club's fine to £9m.

City spent £440million over the summer, equalling the British transfer record by signing Enzo Fernandez for £125million.

Staff at the City Football Academy learned of the news via Daily Mail Sport and other media reports. There was no official email, with some initially left fearing for their jobs and asking senior managers for an explanation.

'It felt like the club was completely blindsided,' one employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told this newspaper.

READ MORE: Main victims of Man City's 'cheating' revealed: Who suffered the MOST from the club's glory years – and how much it cost them – after Premier League's seismic guilty verdict