Pep Guardiola won 16 major honors during his 10-year reign as Manchester City manager before he left in the summer. They all now count for nothing. Under Guardiola, City won a Champions League-Premier League-FA Cup treble. They became the only club in English history to win four successive league titles. They were the first team to achieve a domestic treble, and the only side to win the title by amassing 100 points. All of it was built on a false premise. To borrow a phrase from the Premier League statement that condemned the club's "systematic rule-breaking for almost a decade" following an independent commission's finding that City were guilty of more than 100 breaches of rules between 2009-2018, it was all a "sham."

The egregious actions of City's owners -- Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) -- and executives has destroyed the reputation of a 146-year-old club. City have said they will appeal the verdict, and they maintain they are innocent, but Guardiola cannot escape the damage caused by a prolonged and systematic program of financial deception because much of it was done for his benefit. Abu Dhabi built a club and a team fit for Guardiola, but it was a construction built by ill-gotten gains.

Guardiola's status as the world's preeminent coach was already secure. He arrived at the Etihad in 2016 having already won six league titles in Catalonia and Bavaria, as well as two Champions Leagues with Barcelona. His tactical brilliance built arguably the world's greatest-ever club side at Barcelona. But the super-charged squad building at City could only have happened by the club breaking the rules. The first building blocks were put in place with the hiring of Ferran Soriano as CEO in August 2012 and Txiki Begiristain as director of football two months later.