最终，判决结果公布了，《卫报》的评论措辞严厉：“足球界的丑闻——曼彻斯特城队的严重违规行为，应受到严厉惩罚。”标题如此写道。“事实证明，该俱乐部多年来一直通过极其不道德的手段系统性地违反英格兰足球协会的规则。”不过，这些话并非上周五才写下的，而是120多年前英国足球史上第一起重大贿赂丑闻的结局。
decision finally dropped, the Guardian’s verdict was damning. “FOOTBALL SENSATION – MANCHESTER CITY’S GRAVE OFFENCES – HEAVY PUNISHMENTS”, the headline read. “It is now proved that the club had for years systematically broken the rules of the Football Association by very unscrupulous means.”But these words weren’t written last Friday Instead they were penned more than 120 years ago, at the culmination of English football’s first big illicit payments scandal.
当时，曼彻斯特城队正处于上升期，资金充裕且斗志昂扬——这种情况听起来或许并不陌生。然而，在1904年赢得足总杯冠军后，一切开始走向崩溃。
Back then City were a club rapidly on the up, with money and attitude to burn – which might sound familiar. Yet having won the FA Cup in 1904, everything began to unravel.
事件始于1905赛季的最后一天：曼城队眼看就要夺得冠军，却在比赛中输给了阿斯顿维拉队，比赛中甚至发生了斗殴和互相泼泥的行为。更严重的是，曼城队的明星球员比利·梅雷迪思还被发现向维拉队队长亚历克·利克行贿10英镑，要求对方故意输掉比赛。
It started on the final day of the 1905 season, when City were on the verge of winning the title only to lose against Aston Villa in a match that involved punches and literal mud-slinging Far more seriously, City’s star player, Billy Meredith, was also heard offering a £10 bribe to the Villa captain, Alec Leake, to throw the game.
有些人认为这只是一场闹剧；直到今天，人们仍然不知道是谁举报了这一事件。但这一举报引发了连锁反应：梅雷迪思被禁赛一个赛季，其影响持续了数十年。
Some say it was not serious. To this day no one knows the mysterious spectator who reported it. But it created a butterfly effect that led to Meredith being suspended for a season, and ramifications that lasted for decades.
不久之后，尽管梅雷迪思被禁赛，却仍频繁出现在曼城队的训练场中，这促使足总再次对俱乐部的财务状况展开调查。调查发现，不仅曼彻斯特城的门票收入被转移到了俱乐部董事的个人账户中，这些资金还被用来私下支付球员的工资。例如，梅雷迪思的周薪高达6英镑，而当时规定的最高工资仅为4英镑；他远不是唯一一个获得额外报酬的球员。最终，足总禁止了17名球员再次为曼城队效力，同时两名俱乐部董事被终身禁赛。
Soon after, when Meredith was seen still hanging around City despite his ban, the FA launched a fresh investigation into the club’s finances. It found that not only was City’s gate money being funnelled into the private accounts of club directors, it was being used to give off-the-books payments to players. Meredith, for instance, was on £6 a week when the maximum wage was £4. And he was far from the only one being given a little extra on the side. It led to the FA banning 17 players from playing for City again, while two of the club’s directors were banned for life.
历史虽然不会重演，但某些模式却会反复出现。那么，当年发生在曼城队身上的那些事情对现代足球还有借鉴意义吗？答案是肯定的。
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. So is what happened to City all those years ago relevant to modern times? Yes, absolutely.
首先，1906年的那起事件证明了严厉的惩罚措施确实有效。虽然曼城并非唯一一家进行类似非法交易的俱乐部，但英足总（FA）的制裁导致该俱乐部在积分榜上排名下滑，三年后降级，并直到1937年才再次夺得冠军。
First off, the 1906 case proves that strong punishments work. While City were hardly the only club to be making similar illicit payments, the FA’s sanctions led to the club slipping down the table, being relegated three years later, and not winning the title until 1937.
那支曼城队也早早地体现了足球界一个不可改变的规律：一个俱乐部崛起得越快，其根基可能就越脆弱、越难以维持；因此，它就越有可能再次跌落谷底。
That City team also offered an early example of one of football’s immutable laws of gravity. The faster a club rises, the more its foundations may be shaky or unsustainable, and the more it is likely to plummet back to earth.
这件事中另一个有趣的现象是：尽管曼城受到了严厉的惩罚，但梅雷迪思（Meredith）却实现了自我救赎，这种成功一直持续至今。有些人认为他是因为试图组建球员工会并推动取消最高工资限制而受到不公平的迫害；此外，这位身体素质出色的边锋球员的出色表现也为他赢得了支持。
The other interesting thing in all this? While City had the book thrown at them Meredith enjoyed a redemption arc that continues to this day. It helped that some felt he had been unfairly targeted for trying to set up a players’ union and campaigning for the abolition of the maximum wage. The wiry winger could certainly play too, which certainly didn’t hurt either.
《卫报》传奇足球记者大卫·莱西（David Lacey）甚至将梅雷迪思的评价提升到了与斯坦利·马修斯（Stanley Matthews）同等的地位，称他为英国足球史上最伟大的球员之一。当曼联球迷在2001年投票选出埃里克·坎托纳（Eric Cantona）为球队史上最伟大的球员时，莱西指出：如果是在几十年前，他们很可能会选择乔治·贝斯特（George Best）；而在那之前，他们更有可能选择梅雷迪思本人。
Indeed no less a judge than David Lacey, the Guardian’s legendary football correspondent, described Meredith as ranking “with that of Stanley Matthews in the history of the British game”. And when Manchester United fans voted Eric Cantona as their greatest ever player in 2001, Lacey suggested that a couple of decades earlier they would have gone for George Best, and before that Meredith himself.
梅雷迪思曾在1894年至1905年以及1921年至1924年间为曼城效力，后来又加入了曼联的名人堂，这进一步证明了他的独特地位和重要贡献。
The fact that Meredith, who turned out for City from 1894 to 1905 and again from 1921 to 1924, is also in United’s hall of fame marks him out as a unique and substantial force.
有趣的是，他在两家俱乐部之间的转会并未引起太多批评。事实上，当梅雷迪思在1910年参加曼彻斯特德比时，《卫报》的现场记者对梅雷迪思的表现（缺乏激情和斗志）感到非常失望。
Intriguingly, those switches across Manchester don’t appear to have attracted much condemnation. Indeed, when Meredith played in the Manchester derby in 1910, the Guardian’s man on the ground was left unimpressed by the lack of fire and venom.
“毫无疑问，双方都付出了极大的努力；没有任何人逃避自己的责任，”他写道。“但从比赛本身来看，这场比赛与那些完全不存在地方竞争情绪的比赛并无任何区别；从比赛表现来看，这两支队伍很可能分别代表的是彭赞斯（Penzance）和贝里克-昂-特威德（Berwick-on-Tweed）。”这位《卫报》的记者还提到了一个与现代社会相关的问题：现代球员是否真的那么在乎自己所穿的球衣？
“Both sides tried hard, no doubt; there was no shirking to speak of,” he wrote. “But the game differed in no way that one could see from a hundred other games in which local rivalry has had no place whatsoever. The teams might have represented Penzance and Berwick-on-Tweed respectively for all the evidence the play gave to the contrary.”In echoes of more modern times, the Guardian’s man also questioned whether modern players cared enough about the shirt on their backs.
在曼联以2-1获胜后，他写道：“在当今的职业足球环境中，人们还能期待球员们展现出强烈的地方归属感或俱乐部忠诚度吗？当一支球队今年穿红色球衣、明年穿蓝色球衣、再后来可能又换上白色球衣时，球员们的爱国情感还能持续存在吗？这似乎不太可能。”令人惊讶的是，梅雷迪思（Meredith）一直坚持踢球直到49岁；正如《卫报》在他的讣告中所提到的，他之所以能够坚持下去，是因为他是一个非常注重细节的人，他的思维始终专注于足球运动本身存在的问题。
“Is it reasonable to expect local or even club fervour in professional football as it exists today?” he wrote after United had won 2-1. “Can local patriotism thrive under a red jersey this year, a blue one the next, and perhaps a white one after that? It does not seem likely.”Incredibly, Meredith kept playing until he was 49, helped, as the Guardian noted in his obituary, by being a details man whose “mind persistently dwelt on the problems of the game”.
梅雷迪思被大家亲切地称为“老家伙”（“old guy”），他比赛时总喜欢嘴里含着一根牙签来帮助自己集中注意力。他在50岁生日前的四个月退役了，并接手了一家酒吧的经营。
Meredith, who was affectionately known as “old skin” and played with a toothpick in his mouth to help him concentrate, eventually called it a day four months before his 50th birthday when he took over a pub. Not that it was a quiet retirement.
不过，他的退役生活并不平静：例如，在曼彻斯特遭遇空袭期间，他经营的酒吧后部发生了一起爆炸事件，许多威尔士国家队的队服被炸得四处散落；由于他曾为威尔士国家队出场51次，收集这些队服花费了不少时间。梅雷迪思确实是个聪明人——当被问及曼城成功的秘诀时，他坦率地表示，这得益于俱乐部废除了“任何球员每周的工资不得超过4英镑”的规定。
During the Manchester blitz for instance, a bomb exploded at the back of the pub and a shower of Welsh international caps scattered across the local neighbourhood. It took some time to collect them all given he played 51 times for his country. Meredith was certainly a smart cookie too. When he was asked about the secret of City’s success, he openly admitted it was because the “club put aside the rule that no player should receive more than £4 a week”.
他还指出：“俱乐部并不会因为违法而受到惩罚，而是因为他们的违法行为被曝光才会受到惩罚。”这一道理在2026年依然适用，就像一个多世纪前一样。
“Clubs are not punished for breaking the law – they are punished for being found out,” he also admitted. Which applies as much to 2026 as it did all more than a century ago.