Inside astonishing Man City match fixing scandal which saw entire squad auctioned off and manager banned for life
IF Manchester City beat Arsenal on Sunday, some might say the title race is already pretty much over.
And everyone will be able to focus on the really big battle of the season: Man City versus the Premier League.
But off-the-field sagas in English football are a tale as old as time and City were at the centre of one of the first big scandals.
After Aston Villa beat them 3-2 in the final match of the 1904-05 season, ending City’s title chances, a fight broke out between Sandy Turnbull and Villa’s Alex Leake.
An investigation found that another City player, Billy Meredith, had offered £10 to Leake for Villa to throw the game.
The FA banned Meredith for a year and when City refused to pay him, he took revenge.
Meredith revealed to the authorities that boss Tom Maley not only had instructed him to offer Leake the bribe but had also overseen a separate scheme of giving illegal payments to City players in excess of the £4-per-week maximum wage.
As further details emerged, the club imploded. Maley was banned for life, some club directors were sacked and others received suspensions.
The FA fined the club £900 and 17 players, as well as banning them from playing until New Year’s Day 1907.
City then had to auction off all their players at the Queen’s Hotel in Manchester.
Neighbours Manchester United signed many of the more talented ones, including Meredith, and went on to be crowned champions in 1907-08.
All forgotten and in the past, right?
Wrong. There’s a Stockholm-based United fan who has an X account under the name of @BillyMeredithMU.
Last week he responded to reports that the Prem would seek for City to be relegated if they won the case against the club.
Cyber Billy agreed, saying: “Relegation and removal of titles is the only result that would satisfy.”
Of course, the current incarnation of City is yet to be found guilty of anything.
The independent disciplinary commission only started to hear the case on Monday and City may have won a fifth title in a row by the time the verdict arrives.
In any case, City deny all the allegations and claim to have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” to back up this position.
At least the authorities were able to sort things out quickly and cleanly back in 1905.
But there is no prospect of Kevin De Bruyne doing a Billy Meredith and grassing City up for anything.
And if United had their pick of City players at an auction, you still would not back them to come out of it with a left-back.