Let there be blanks instead of Manchester City’s name on trophies: there was no honour there | Jonathan Wilson

The spaces can stand both as a rebuke to an era of greed but also a tribute to the Premier League’s hunt for justice At half-time in the 2014 League Cup final, Sunderland led Manchester City 1-0. Yaya Touré equalised with a casually brilliant 30-yard clip 10 minutes after the break, and City went on to win 3-1.

City, we now know from the independent commission, were at the time involved in a prolonged and calculated act of cheating , while Touré, the leaks in Der Spiegel suggested, was being paid via a dual contract to disguise exactly how much City were spending. Although precise details were left to the appendices, the commission’s report refers to payments “not recorded in an employment contract … but instead recorded in a consultancy agreement”. Had Sunderland won, they would not merely have ended a 41-year wait for a trophy but…