Richard Dunne admits 'asterisk' over City's trophies after Premier League guilty verdict

Richard Dunne has conceded that an asterisk will permanently hang over Manchester City’s trophy haul following Tuesday’s independent commission ruling that found the club guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons.

The former City captain, who made more than 350 appearances for the club before leaving for Aston Villa in 2009, was among the first prominent figures from the club’s past to speak publicly in the hours after the verdict was delivered.

“If the verdict is upheld after the appeal, it’s the biggest scandal in Premier League history, in English footballing history,” Dunne said. “There is obviously always going to be an asterisk about what they’ve achieved.”

Despite that admission, the 47-year-old was reluctant to dismiss what he witnessed on the pitch during City’s dominant era under Pep Guardiola. “I don’t know about taking away the generation of football that we’ve seen, because what those players did on the pitch was incredible,” he said. “You can never take away from what you’ve seen on the pitch and the moments that the fans have shared, the players have shared — all that stuff stays and remains forever.”

Dunne was less forgiving of the club’s conduct off it. “It puts a black mark against the club in terms of how they’ve gone about things, what they’ve done, and how they’ve lied to the fans. They’ve not been fair to the rest of the Premier League, and they’ve not been correct in how they’ve conducted themselves.”

He also questioned the credibility of the current Premier League season while the matter remains unresolved. “The rest of the Premier League is irrelevant until this is sorted,” Dunne said, adding that City would ultimately want to clear their name and “get themselves back onto an even keel with the rest of the league.”

City are expected to appeal the commission’s findings. Dunne, who returned to the club two years ago as part of their youth coaching setup, retired as a player in 2015 and has since worked regularly as a pundit in Ireland.