Manchester City owners’ damaging strategy of appeal, deny and delay will inflict untold damage on countless people. It will inflict damage on this season’s Premier League which is effectively on hold with an unpunished City still involved. It inflicts further damage on the reputation of the world’s most popular sports league. It casts a cloud over the league for seasons to come, for as long as they drag the sport through the courts which they could do. City owners’ refusal to accept responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence against them further hardens anger towards the club. The strategy inflicts further damage on a 146-year-old club whose reputation was made by the honest endeavour and thrilling football of that outstanding team of the late 60s and 70s. The actions of City’s current owners risk trashing a historic club’s reputation. Appeal, deny, delay inflicts further turmoil on the lives of their supporters. City fans’ innate defiance may waver when getting called cheat relentlessly. City fans didn’t cheat. Their club owners did with “sham contracts”, according to the findings of a long, forensic review by an independent commission. But it is City fans facing the consequences of their owners’ book-cookery – in the stands, on the streets, at work. A storm of scorn. Do City owners also not think of their head coach, Enzo Maresca, and how every press conference will be an inquisition? Every player interview? Every arrival at an away stadium? Do they not think of all the vital work done by City in the Community, the club’s charitable wing currently trying to celebrate 40 years of helping disadvantaged local people, and how their conduct impacts that? Appeal, deny, delay damages Abu Dhabi’s own reputation. Do they actually care about football? About pressure on innocent, hard-working staff? About integrity? City’s owners have done plenty of good in East Manchester but that work now seems tainted. Do they not care about the millions of people in this country who love football. Some may now, because of sham contracts and appeal, deny, delay, simply turn away from the national sport? Do the owners worry about the UAE’s image? The behaviour of City’s owners is now a diplomatic issue between the UK and the UAE. And good luck to our new ambassador to the UAE, Geraldine McCafferty, who took up the position last month and will need all her diplomatic skills acquired in Sarajevo, Bogota and Beijing. If they had a shred of responsibility, City owners would call off the lawyers, accept the independent commission’s findings, take the punishment and seek some settlement with the Premier League over compensation to other clubs. Appeal, deny, delay helps nobody.