Arsenal legend Ian Wright has pulled no punches in his assessment of Manchester City, accusing the club of cheating on an industrial scale following the landmark independent commission verdict. Speaking on ITV regarding the seismic ruling that found City guilty of the vast majority of their Premier League financial breaches, Wright insisted that standard penalties will not suffice.
Wright expressed astonishment at seeing the scale of the violations laid bare, noting that the club allegedly utilized disguised funding arrangements to inflate revenues and suppress costs by upwards of £900 million over a nine-season span. Insisting that the integrity of the league must be upheld, Wright declared that an unprecedented punishment is required here. “It’s cheating on an industrial scale. It’s quite surreal seeing it written down like that.
You can’t mention City without mentioning what’s going on because they were so great. I feel like an unprecedented punishment is required here,” said Wright. “It’s a massive day for the Premier League, they’ve taken on a whole country. It’s going to get so litigious now, I think it’s going to go on for so long.
It’s so sad.” Wright highlighted the toll it took on rival teams, such as Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp, who pushed City to the absolute limit while operating under different conditions. Manchester City have continuously maintained their innocence and are expected to fiercely contest the outcome through the appeals process, setting the stage for what legal experts warn could be a long and intensely litigious battle