Ever feel you’ve been cheated? Consequences could be profound after Manchester City guilty verdict | Jonathan Wilson

So it turns out none of that was real. Nothing that happened in English football between 2009‑10 and 2017-18 that involved Manchester City actually happened. City beating Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford? Fake. Sergio Agüero’s 94th‑minute winner to clinch the title in 2012? A figment of the imagination. That season City reached 100 points? Bobby Ewing dreamed it in the shower.

Without those successes, City wouldn’t have been in the position they were for the past eight seasons (and 35 of the charges relate to a failure to cooperate with Premier League investigations between 2018 and 2023). The 14 successive wins that took them to the league title in 2018-19 would not have happened without what went before. Neither would the Treble of 2023 or the record four league titles in a row.

Related: Manchester City chairman Al Mubarak insists ‘nothing has changed’ after guilty verdict

So while it may turn out that those successes did indeed happen, they are tainted by what went before. “We’re not really here”? Turns out none of us have been for quite some time.

There will be an appeal. This is not yet the final truth, which could still be a long way off. But it may turn out that Jürgen Klopp was a lot more successful than anybody thought, that Brendan Rodgers and Ole Gunnar Solskjær are title‑winning managers.

Probably not, because the authorities seem reluctant, even if titles are stripped from a club, to reallocate those titles – and understandably: if one side is streaking clear, priorities for others change. None of this feels right, but it would feel off if a team won a league because a rival had chosen to prioritise a cup or European campaign at the expense of an apparently unwinnable title. Ersatz glory satisfies nobody.

If the guilty verdicts are upheld, the consequences will be profound. There will be appeals for mitigation. There are wheels within wheels. Bloomberg reported last month that the government had been warned of potential negative consequences for UK-United Arab Emirates relations should the verdict go against City.

Andy Burnham was mayor during a period when the UAE made significant investments in Manchester and spoke to the UAE president, Sheikh Mohammed, within a week of becoming prime minister in July. But it is hard to see how a systematic campaign of cheating over a period of nine years could bring anything except severe punishment.

Everton’s one breach in 2022, overspending the profitability and sustainability threshold by £19.5m, earned them a six-point deduction and they had to pay Burnley, who were relegated, £26m in damages plus £9m in interest. City’s offences are almost incalculably worse and they failed to cooperate with the investigation.

It is not just that they could be forcibly relegated; it is that potential for financial claims against City and not just from those sides who missed out on titles during the ghost years. Other sides were denied European places. Prize money was lost. Even relegated sides may argue that City were a factor in them dropping out of the Premier League.