Paddy Power poke fun at Man City’s fourth straight Premier League title with ‘Asterisk Task Force’ advert amid their 115 FFP charges

Paddy Power has poked fun at Manchester City’s fourth consecutive Premier League title with a tongue-in-cheek ‘Asterisk Task Force’ advert.

Pep Guardiola’s team lifted the trophy for the sixth time in seven seasons, after their 3-1 victory over West Ham.

However, City are still awaiting the outcome of their 115 charges for alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play rules. The Premier League champions have denied all allegations.

Rival fans have mocked City by suggesting an asterisk hangs over their latest title win until a verdict is made.

Paddy power have ridiculed City’s success with an advert in which a fake task force places asterisks on honors lists in Britain and Ireland ‘where a sporting achievement is deemed potentially tainted’.

Manchester City won the Premier League for the fourth time in a row this weekend

City are still awaiting the outcome of their 115 charges for alleged breaches of FFP rules

The tongue-in-cheek advert shows the fake task force adding asterisks to City’s roll of honour

It shows an ‘Asterisk Delivery’ van arriving at the Etihad Stadium and one of the two workers says to someone portraying a city worker in the advert: ‘It’s a big job. Bigger than we actually thought.

‘Do you see this here? Construction of trophies. All could be infected. To be honest, I shouldn’t have let it get this far.’

The other member of the task force says they need to ‘order more asterisks’ as they will be putting asterisks next to City’s list of trophies.

After the job is done, one of them says, “Well, that wasn’t too bad actually. Not much before 2010, so job done.”

The advert also states that they ‘don’t hand out asterisks to avoid relegation’, referring to Everton’s total of eight points deducted this season for breaching the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.

Everton were also deducted 10 points in November for exceeding allowable losses by £19.5m over a period ending with the 2021/22 season. However, following a successful appeal, this was reduced to six points.

They were then deducted a further two points for another violation later in the season.

The Paddy Power advert also features a cameo from former Ireland international Stephen Hunt, who calls and visits the ‘Asterisk Task Force’ over Thierry Henry’s controversial handball which cost the Irish a place at the 2010 World Cup.

Former Republic of Ireland international Stephen Hunt (left) makes a cameo during the ad

Hunt is seen protesting against Thierry Henry’s handball which cost the Republic of Ireland a place at the 2010 World Cup

Man City’s charges include failing to provide accurate financial information between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons, failing to provide accurate details of player and manager payments during the same period, and alleged breaches of the club’s financial rules Premier League and UEFA.

35 relate to the Premier League’s failure to cooperate with investigations into the matter between December 2018 and February 2023.

Manchester City deny any wrongdoing and Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said a trial date had been set but would not reveal when it would take place.