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Carragher calls for Manchester City titles to be stripped after guilty verdict
30th September, 2026 03:57 PM
Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City should lose the honours they secured during the period covered by the club’s Premier League financial breaches, while also questioning whether their owners should remain in charge.
An independent commission has found City guilty of all charges relating to serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations. The club was charged with more than 100 alleged breaches in February 2023.
City have rejected the findings and confirmed their intention to appeal the commission’s decision.
During the nine-season period examined, from 2009/10 to 2017/18, Manchester City won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups and one Community Shield.
“I do think Manchester City’s titles they’ve won in this time, or trophies, should be taken off their list,” Sky Sports pundit Carragher said on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
However, the former Liverpool defender stopped short of saying that those trophies should automatically be handed to the teams that finished runners-up.
Impact of the verdict
Instead, Carragher argued that the impact goes beyond medals and trophies because the players and supporters involved in those title races cannot recover the emotions they experienced at the time.
“Whether other clubs should get them is slightly different,” said Carragher. “But what Manchester City have done is, they’ve not just hurt their own players in terms of no one looks at their trophies and medals now in the same way…
“I’ve been very lucky to win a few medals. I never look at the medal years later. But my mind goes back to a moment, I get a feeling in my stomach. I remember the referee blowing a final whistle of a big game.
“Those players will never get that feeling and it was robbed by Manchester City. That’s what they haven’t got. I don’t think any player will care if you go and give them a medal, and he puts it in the house, in his trophy room, he’ll never look at it.
“It’s not about medals, it’s about feelings, and that’s what Manchester City have robbed.”
Carragher questions whether City owners should remain
Carragher also argued that any punishment should extend beyond the club itself, with the ownership structure coming under scrutiny following the commission’s findings.
“The club are going to get punished,” he said. “You’ve got supporters, players, the club and owners. For me this is all about the owners, the people who are at the top of the club.
“Man City are a wonderful club and have been for a hundred years and will be for hundreds of years going forward. But in terms of what we’re finding out now, I don’t know how the owners can continue in English football.
“We talk about a fit and proper test for owners. What they’ve done for 10 years – and left this stain that will be there for the next 10 years – it starts because they don’t like the word no. When you see the statements – the one from [CEO Ferran] Soriano last night – it’s beggars belief what you’re hearing.
“They have so much power and finance behind them, nobody ever tells them no. Until they move away from the club, I don’t know how this stain is removed from the club.
“City will move on – they will have great teams in the future. But I don’t see how the ownership can continue after what’s happened here and their reaction to it. How can they be surprised? They’ve got irrefutable evidence – well where is it? Put it out there.”
Carragher explains why the verdict did not surprise him
Carragher said he had long questioned City’s financial claims, particularly their commercial income compared with other leading European clubs.
“I’m shocked but also not surprised. I always felt they were guilty for two simple reasons.
“It would be impossible for Man City ever to have the commercial revenue of Liverpool, Man Utd or Real Madrid. They said for years they had that type of income coming in. It’s impossible for that to ever happen, no matter how successful Man City are.
“And number two, as they said yesterday and have continually said over this period, ‘they’ve done nothing wrong, they have irrefutable evidence’. Every man and his dog knows if you’re charged by the police and had irrefutable evidence it would be over in a day or a week – this has dragged on for years. This idea that nothing has gone on and it has dragged on this long tells you something was there.
“The reason I’m shocked is because I never believed the Premier League would be able to beat them in a court of law because of the power and finances Man City have behind them.
“A huge well done to the Premier League for the result it seems they have right now. For the Premier League to not just win this case but people talk about 114 charges out of 115 – they had to win it like that for it to be convincing.”
City players could face questions over their legacy
Carragher said the commission’s decision could also have a major effect on how some of City’s leading players from that era are remembered.
He expressed sympathy for the footballers, particularly those whose achievements could now be viewed differently because of the findings against the club.
“I’d be furious and I actually feel for the Man City players,” said Carragher. “As a team, what they’ve done is wrong. The Premier League have called it a sham five times in their statement.
“But in terms of individual players, some of them are coming out to bat for the club, that’s normal right now. It must be very difficult for them to see anything that’s going on and to almost feel like a lot of their career is going to have an asterisk with it, or people are just going to call it a sham.
“I think of Kevin De Bruyne, who’s one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen. He could have played for any team in the world and he still would have been one of the best players. He was fantastic.
“But he chose his club to be Manchester City. Now, one of those reasons he may have chosen, maybe was his wages, that maybe were inflated because of the situation around Man City and what they’ve been charged with.
“But if he sits there at the end of his career now and the whole world looks at his Manchester City career of 10 years of service and look at it as a sham, and I keep using that word, that’s the word the Premier League used, I’d be furious. Absolutely furious that around the world people are looking at my career like that because of what’s going on upstairs.
“Those people have continually told those players – because I have spoken to certain players about it – that everything was fine. They were not going to get done for anything.
“We keep talking about Liverpool or Manchester United, all these players who maybe could get Premier League titles now. And that’s absolutely spot on,
“But I’ve actually been thinking about the Manchester City players and how they feel. What Manchester City’s hierarchy are coming out with in the last couple of days as well, they’re just gaslighting the players, their ex-players, their supporters, because those people want to believe them so much. They’ve got such strong relationships with them, they want to believe it right now.
“I think the longer this goes on, the more you’ll see less support from maybe ex-City players and more frustration about maybe how their careers are going to be viewed by the outside world.”
The commission’s ruling now leaves Manchester City facing the next stage of the disciplinary process, with the club expected to challenge the findings through an appeal. The eventual outcome will determine what sporting and financial consequences, if any, the club will face.
