Inside match-fixing scandal that plunged Man City into chaos and saw 17 players banned

Manchester City once had 17 players banned after a match-fixing scandal opened up a huge can of worms. They are currently involved in another dispute, with them fighting 115 charges for alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.

But the club were also involved in another sticky situation back in 1906. They were found guilty of, among other things, funnelling money through secret accounts to get around rules preventing wealthy individuals from pouring money into clubs.

City managed to hide their misdealings until Sandy Turnbull, one of their players, punched an opponent during a game against Aston Villa. He was one of two players to be suspended by the FA, with the resulting inquiry starting a chain of events in which things began to unravel.

During the inquiry, an unnamed man reportedly testified that City forward Billy Meredith apparently offered money to Villa defender Alex Leake to throw the match. Meredith, one of the biggest stars of his day, was eventually found guilty of bribery and banned for an entire season.

In spite of his ban, Meredith was present at most of City’s subsequent home games and was occasionally seen in the club’s offices asking for money. This was noticed by Tom Hindle, an accountant employed by the FA, who thought it was suspicious.

The governing body opened another investigation after City reported Meredith and made a point of the board’s refusal to ‘lend itself to any illicit or illegal practices’. This left Meredith frustrated and he began to expose City’s financial dealings, kicking off a domino effect.

At the time, there was a wage cap of £4 per week but it transpired that City had been flouting it, with Meredith among those being paid more. He was earning a wage of £6 per week and told the FA: “I don’t believe that any member of our team was paid less than I was.”

City were also found to have paid over £681 in bonuses during the 1903/04 season in another flagrant violation of the rules. On top of that, there was evidence that Meredith had been promised his entire salary for the season for which he was banned.

The FA ultimately decided that City had ‘for years systematically broken the rules by very unscrupulous means’ and threw the book at them. A total of 17 players were fined, suspended, and banned from playing for City again while two directors were handed lifetime bans.

Two more directors were suspended for a year while the remainder were ordered to resign in light of the scandal. City were relegated three years after their illegal overspending was exposed, having finished second, third and fifth in the three seasons before they were punished.

Meredith, meanwhile, went to Manchester United but returned to City over a decade later, making his final appearance just four months short of his 50th birthday.