Jamie Carragher Urges Man City Stripped of Titles Following Rule Breach Verdict

Jamie Carragher has joined calls for Manchester City to be stripped of their titles after the club was found guilty of more than 100 breaches of Premier League rules.

The Premier League confirmed Tuesday that the Etihad club had been found guilty of breaching its rules over a nine-year period, alleging the creation of 'sham' contracts with commercial partners to funnel approximately £900 million into its football operations. Manchester City, who deny any wrongdoing, secured eight trophies, including three Premier League titles, during this timeframe.

Carragher, writing in The Telegraph, argued that the club's honors should be revoked, stating that the "honours boards of Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal would look different in a world in which City followed the rules." The 48-year-old former Liverpool defender criticized City's chief executive, Ferran Soriano, for his public statements.

"City are in denial, refusing to acknowledge their reputation is shattered after being found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges against them," Carragher wrote. "Ferran Soriano, City’s chief executive, sounded more like Donald Trump referring to “conspiracies” and issuing a series of “alternative facts”. His statements were delusional and factually incorrect when he insisted they did no wrong and attempted to present the verdict as an “opinion”, when it is rooted in years of investigations and legal arguments."

Carragher suggested that fans' anger should be directed towards the club's ownership, but acknowledged that the players might become "cast as the scapegoats for the sins of their executives." He added, "One or two City players may already have an exit strategy in mind if they wish to add honours without a shadow cast over them."

"The titles have to be taken off City," Carragher asserted. "The punishment has to be severe to give the rules meaning, establish a precedent and guarantee a deterrent for future owners who may be tempted to follow City’s lead."

In contrast, Wayne Rooney argued against the retrospective awarding of Premier League titles to rival clubs. Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Rooney stated, "I wouldn't feel comfortable about accepting another Premier League medal if I'm being honest, because I don't think we deserve it. We didn't do enough that season to win the league."

Rooney expressed empathy for players who might be unaware of the alleged rule breaches. "If you're just putting them in the Championship, and I get that's a massive punishment, they're going to come back up," Rooney said, advocating for relegation to a lower division with significant financial restrictions.

He believes the club should be relegated to the lowest possible league and subjected to restrictions on spending for several seasons. "I'd put them in the lowest league they can go in and then put restrictions on them in terms of how much money they can spend for the next three or four seasons," Rooney stated.