Premier League in limbo as Manchester City soar / Photo: Paul ELLIS - AFP
Premier League in limbo as Manchester City soar
Manchester City silenced a hostile Liverpool crowd in their first match since being found guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations but there is a deep sense of uncertainty over what it actually means.
Enzo Maresca's men are top of the table with six wins out of six after their impressive 3-0 win at Anfield on Sunday.
Yet those points could count for nothing unless City are successful in their appeal against the findings of an independent commission that found them guilty of more than 100 breaches of Premier League rules.
No sanction has yet been decided, but the club could face a severe points deduction leading to relegation, or even expulsion from the English top flight.
There is even speculation that City could be stripped of the three Premier League titles they won between 2009 and 2018, the period to which the charges relate.
The Premier League, which has a huge global reach, faces an appeal process likely to drag on for months, putting a question mark against every City result, and with huge potential implications for other clubs.
"We're sat here not knowing what it means," former Manchester United captain turned pundit Gary Neville told Sky Sports on Sunday.
"City supporters will be delighted (with the win), but I don't think they recognise right now the stain, the stigma and the damage this is going to do to them."
The BBC's chief football writer, Phil McNulty, said the team's impressive win at Anfield had been overshadowed by what was happening off the pitch.
"Every victory, every league table, will come with a metaphorical asterisk until clarity and finality comes," he said. "No one knows when this will be."
Andoni Iraola's Liverpool are ninth in the table, nine points behind leaders City.
But even if Liverpool fail to challenge for the title, the three points lost on Sunday could cost them dearly in the battle for a place in the Champions League.
Potential sanctions against City could also have an impact on the battle for relegation.
"That today, what does it mean going forward?" former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports.
"This has to be done before the end of the season. There's no way this can carry on to the end of the season because we're all getting kidded."
- Liverpool anger -
The Premier League announced late last month that an independent commission had found that City had arranged "sham" deals to artificially inflate revenues and reduce costs by more than £900 million ($1.2 billion) between 2009 and 2018.
Liverpool feel particularly aggrieved, having finished second behind the Manchester club in the Premier League three times in the past 12 years.
City's rivals believe the Abu Dhabi-backed club's spending in the 2009-2018 period built the foundations for a golden era that continues to bear fruit.
The Premier League leaders spent around £460 million ($609 million) in the 2026 summer transfer window -- a new Premier League record for a single window -- as new boss Maresca reshaped the squad following the departure of Pep Guardiola.
One of City's expensive new signings, midfielder Elliot Anderson, admitted the criticism of the club had galvanised the players as they stepped out at Anfield.
"We've got to stick together," said the England midfielder. "I think it really brings us together. It gives you that determination to come out here, everyone is against you, and turn them over, which we did."
Anderson and his teammates will have to get used to their new reality as the whole of English football waits for a definitive decision in a case that has rumbled on for years.
As chants, banners, flags and scarves at Anfield showed, City stand accused of cheating their way to the top -- and opposition fans will not be silenced.
J.Padovano--LDdC
