Steven Gerrard played against Man City during the years of their alleged breaches. Alex Livesey/Getty Images Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has said that Manchester City "have to be stripped" of their titles after the club were found guilty of 100+ charges of financial misconduct by the Premier League, adding that an "example must be set" after their breaches.
The charges against City relate to the years 2009-18, with Gerrard leaving Liverpool in 2015 and famously captaining the side that finished runners-up to City in the league in the 2013-14 season.
City deny all wrongdoing and have appealed the verdict.
Asked what he felt City's punishment should be, Gerrard did not hold back, saying they must be made to "suffer," like they have done to other teams during the alleged time period.
"In terms of how I feel, I potentially could be affected if you like, I wouldn't want individual players to give stuff back, that wouldn't be right," Gerrard told The Overlap.
"But the club, they have to be stripped... There needs to be an example set, historically whether that's a star throughout all the years of their achievements, because then it doesn't matter whether the titles are stripped or not, as soon as that star is there, then everyone knows that [success] happened because of what we all know happened.
Steven Gerrard also came up against Manchester City as manager of Aston Villa, outside the time frame of the alleged breaches. Visionhaus/Getty Images "And then there needs to be a punishment moving forward, I don't know what the right one is... I don't think its fair on the Championship if they go down, because they will be one of the three teams that come up, so that takes a slot away from the Championship so it's not fair on the EFL.. Or the teams playing against City week in, week out.
"I think it's more moving forward in the Premier League, to punish them over a period of time, multi-year punishment, that would be my opinion, I'm not saying that's the right opinion but that's just how I feel.
"I think it needs to be a transfer ban, a points [deduction] over a period of time and make them suffer like they've made everyone suffer over the nine, ten years that they've done it.
"They were strong with Everton, strong with Forest [punishments for breaches]. Good luck to the Premier League but they have to be strong."
While Gerrard has played down the prospect of receiving a retrospective Premier League medal, he has said that those at City must face the consequences of what they've done, if they are proven guilty at the end of the appeal process.