“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. So while it may turn out that those successes did indeed happen, they are tainted by what went before. …”
Guardian
NYT/ATH (Video)
Ever feel you’ve been cheated? Consequences could be profound after Manchester City guilty verdict – Jonathan Wilson
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“Moments before munching on a salad at an upscale Italian restaurant in Los Angeles, Andrés Cantor was stopped by a worker for a brief conversation in Spanish. After dinner, another worker hailed him down to take a photograph together near the car valet stand. … Cantor is a soccer celebrity currently starring in his 10th men’s World Cup. But his great physical skill is not precision dribbling of Lionel Messi or the acceleration of Kylian Mbappé. It is his buoyant and limber voice. As a play-by-play announcer for the Spanish-speaking network Telemundo, Cantor must capture the explosive moment whenever a player finds the back of the net. And he does not treat ‘gol,’ or ‘goal,’ as a typical one-syllable word. He enthusiastically elongates it, stretching the word for upward of 10 seconds, while curling his lips and cupping his hand near his ear. …”
