Gerrard: Manchester City Should Be Stripped of Its Titles Over 100-Charge Financial Case

Steven Gerrard has not held back. The former Liverpool player believes Manchester City "has to be stripped" of its titles after the club was found guilty of more than 100 charges of financial wrongdoing by the Premier League. For the Reds' longtime captain, the message has to be clear: "you have to set an example."

The charges against City span the period between 2009 and 2018, the very years when Gerrard was still wearing the Liverpool shirt (he left the club in 2015) and when, in fact, he captained the side that finished runner-up behind City itself in the 2013-14 league season. That's no small detail in understanding why this hits so close to home for him.

City, for their part, deny any wrongdoing and have already filed an appeal against the verdict. But that doesn't stop Gerrard from weighing in on what should happen next.

Asked directly what the punishment should be, the former midfielder was blunt: City needs to "suffer," just as he says they made other clubs suffer throughout those years.

"As for how I feel, I could be affected in some way, but I wouldn't want individual players to have to give anything back, that wouldn't be right. But the club, they're the ones who should be stripped of the titles... There has to be an example made, historically, whether that's an asterisk on all the years of their achievements, because otherwise it makes no difference whether they take the titles away or not: as soon as that asterisk is there, everyone will know that success came because of what we all know happened."Steven Gerrard

Gerrard also made clear he doesn't see a possible administrative relegation as fair. In his view, it would hurt clubs that have nothing to do with the matter: "I don't think it's fair on the Championship if they go down, because they'd be one of the three teams coming up, so that takes a spot away from the Championship, it's not fair on the EFL... or on the teams that play against City week after week."

His proposal goes in a different direction: a prolonged punishment within the Premier League itself. "I think it has to be more forward-looking within the Premier League, punishing them over a period of several years, that would be my opinion, I'm not saying it's the correct one, but it's how I feel," he explained. And he went further: he talked about a possible transfer ban and a points deduction sustained over time, "so that they suffer the way they made everyone else suffer over the nine or ten years they did it." He pointed to the cases of Everton and Nottingham Forest, previously sanctioned for similar reasons, as a reference: "They were tough on Everton, tough on Forest. Good luck to the Premier League, but they have to be firm."

Not looking for a retroactive medal

Gerrard played down the idea of receiving any kind of retroactive recognition for that 2013-14 season. He insisted this isn't about personal revenge against City's players, whom he called "extraordinary players" who had their moment and earned it. The problem, he said, lies elsewhere.

"I'm not one of those who would say I'd accept a Premier League medal, or that I want one of the ones they have. It wouldn't feel the same, it wouldn't be the same thing. I think I've already accepted that I never won the Premier League, that I came up short there."Steven Gerrard

Gerrard closed his reflection by pointing to something bigger than his own career: the memories that, in his view, that decade stole from many people. "I've heard City players, City fans, celebrities who are fans, say 'they can't take those moments away from us.' And what about the memories that were taken from others during those nine or ten years? Spurs fans, United fans, Everton fans, mid-table teams, teams in the cups. The former players, the current players and the owners of City, everyone connected with the club, need to think about the memories that were potentially stolen from everyone else."