Simon Hattenstone, a features writer for the Guardian, has been a Manchester City fan for more than 50 years. He was very young – and recovering from a childhood illness that had nearly killed him – when he started going to matches in his home town with his dad.
For a long time, it was a relationship built on occasional highs and many, manylows. But then something extraordinary happened: Manchester City’s fortune began to turn and it had a glittering decade – until it all came crashing down.
As the Guardian sports writer Jonathan Liew explains to Annie Kelly, Manchester City has been found guilty of cheating their way to the top, pumping more than £900m of illegal income into the club since 2008. But the story of its catastrophic fall from grace is bigger than just one club, and tells a tale of how the Premier League and the UK have been changed by a huge influx of foreign money.
