You wouldn’t know it from the post-Liverpool celebrations or the mutual petrostate back-slapping before, during and after their defeat to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, but Manchester City are in a bit of a bind.

An appeal is underway but they face the very real prospect of being dumped out of the Premier League for their 114 breaches of competition rules.

Their ‘irrefutable evidence’ has already been refuted once and likely will be again thanks to some comically damning emails from City executives and a contradictory Etihad statement to the US government in 2015. They’ve got a Reece James leg to stand on, if they’ve got one at all.

Expulsion from the Premier League could leave them in purgatory as the EFL has no obligation to accept them as members, but a huge points deduction to ensure relegation is a more likely sanction, in which case they would drop into the Championship as part of the normal three up, three down seasonal transition.

Transfer bans, the stripping of titles, a massive fine and compensation lawsuits from the 35 clubs affected by Manchester City’s flouting of the rules are all possible parts of a punishment pie which could see the club’s ’embarrassed’ Abu Dhabi owners leave before they’re pushed by the independent football regulator.

And any thought that UEFA competition could be a safe space for City took a hit on Friday, when Colombian broadcaster and commentator Cesar Augusto Londoño, who boasts 1m followers on X, claimed the European government body are set to impose the most severe punishment in its history.

He posted on October 15: ‘UEFA is reportedly close to announcing that, if Manchester City is found guilty following its appeal, it will be expelled from all European competitions for a period of 7 to 10 years.

‘Under that measure, it would be unable to participate in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. The club was found guilty of 115 financial violations in the first instance.’

Londono’s claim is yet to be ratified by a UEFA source, but we do know that the European governing body is monitoring the case and will consider action as five of the charges aimed at City were a failure to comply with its own financial fair play rules.

It would be a crushing blow for Man City, who could hope for a realistic return to challenge for titles in a much shorter time period if European football was on offer.

Players are far less likely to stomach a year in the Championship if there’s no prospect of competing in the Champions League for what could easily be the rest of their careers, while a decade without the financial rewards of competing in Europe would keep City in the doldrums.

For those of us hoping for a punishment to fit the crime, it sounds great. But what Manchester City may decide to do as a result could be even better.

With no Premier League football for a season, no European football for a decade and therefore no realistic chance of major honours for at least that long, talks over the revival of a Super League can’t be far away.

The first call should be to the leaders of Real Madrid and Juventus, the strongest proponents of the failed European Super League, before approaching Inter Miami, Boca Juniors, River Plate, Flamengo, Corinthians and the Saudi Pro League.

An NFL-style closed franchise structure with riches to match is not going to be a hard sell to clubs desperate to combat the rising financial dominance of the English Premier League.

It was fan backlash which forced Manchester City along with Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea to back out of the European Super League in 2021, but the Abu Dhabi owners may find the City faithful more amenable to a breakaway Global Super League in the wake of the guilty verdict and an ‘us against them’ feeling which could soon incorporate UEFA as the bad guys as well as the Premier League.

Some of the players might stick around too as a lack of financial fair play regulations to comply with would put no limit on their wages.

UEFA and the other confederations could ban players from playing for their countries in respective continental tournaments, but competing in the World Cup would be assured as Gianni Infantino kisses the feet of any club owner pushing for an international club competition.

It’s what the City bosses wanted for their club before they were found guilty of committing the most comprehensive rule breaches in football history – admittedly in a slightly different, more alluring guise with all of the top European clubs also on board – so good luck to them.

But anyone thinking that entry into a Global Super League would in any way be a victory for Manchester City, or at least not a fitting punishment for their breaches, need only picture Erling Haaland’s face after his fourth game of the season against Al Nassr in a league bereft of all jeopardy watched by the few fans who will stick around to witness a beautiful game turned soulless.