Gerrard calls for Manchester City to be stripped of titles

Steven Gerrard is calling for Manchester City to be stripped of its titles amid the financial crisis, after an independent commission concluded that the club had breached Premier League rules on providing accurate financial information between the 2009/2010 and 2017/2018 seasons. The former Liverpool captain also supports another form of sanction: placing a distinctive mark beside the titles in the historical record.

Gerrard does not want players to be personally required to return the medals or rewards they received. “I don’t want the players, individually, to give back what they got,” he said. He believes, however, that the club itself should lose its titles. “Personally, I don’t accept anything; I have come to terms with my situation and what I achieved. But as far as the club is concerned, they should be stripped of the titles they won,” he added.

If the titles are not removed, Gerrard proposes that Manchester City’s achievements carry a visible mark in the archives. He suggested a star or another indication to distinguish those titles. “There must be at least a distinctive mark; then it doesn’t matter whether the titles are taken away or not,” he stressed, so that the public can connect the mark to the events at issue.

Previously, the former Liverpool captain had also called for severe sanctions against Manchester City, including a transfer ban and points deductions over several seasons. He believes any decision should set a precedent. He has also rejected the idea of relegation to the Championship, arguing that it would be unfair to English Football League clubs competing for promotion.

Aged 46, Gerrard has never won the Premier League. With Liverpool, he finished second behind Manchester City in the 2013/2014 season, two points behind the Manchester club; it was his penultimate season with the Merseyside club. He now favours sanctions targeting the club over several seasons. “The punishment should include a ban on signing new players, a points deduction over a given period and making them suffer as they made everyone suffer during the nine or ten years in which they carried out these practices,” he said.