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After 1,331 days, the outlasting of three U.K. Prime Ministers, and the exhaustion of everyone connected to the Premier League, the verdict has finally arrived: Manchester City have been found guilty.
The Premier League enthusiastically celebrated its victory (which remains subject to an appeal from a club that stubbornly maintains it is "innocent") with a statement that repeatedly used the word "sham" with the eagerness of someone who had just discovered it.
Beyond that triumphant posturing, however, the independent commission (which City persistently and incorrectly refers to as a "Premier League commission") laid out its detailed reasoning across 40 partially redacted pages. The findings were nothing short of revealing.
Why the Case Took So Long to Reach a Verdict
The independent commission took care to address the lengthy delay, which also served as a clear warning to City against pursuing any notion of a retrial, given the sheer volume of evidence that has already been thoroughly examined.
"It has taken us much longer than we would have wished, and much longer than we had anticipated would be the case when the hearing concluded, to produce our decision. That is regrettable," the statement noted.
"However, we were fortunate to have available to us throughout the period in which our decision has been being prepared not only all of the documents that were used at the hearing but also:
Barring any significant new evidence coming to light, it appears that a definitive verdict has now been reached.