Imagine a world where Manchester City had not used "sham contracts" to build a team capable of winning three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and three EFL Cups.
If City were the winners, then there had to be losers - and not just those teams who finished runners-up or lost cup finals.
The potential impact runs much deeper and includes missed Champions League qualification, relegation and Premier League prize money.
"We have lived through a period of deception," former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino said last month. "No type of punishment will make it possible to repair what was done."
You can see his point. Spurs finished one place outside the Champions League positions in four (although one only was under Pochettino) of the eight seasons in which City qualified for Europe's elite competition.
BBC Sport took City's earnings from the Champions League in the following season, and deducted Tottenham's Europa League prize money.
Over the four seasons Spurs missed out, Manchester City earned £148.2m from the Champions League, with Tottenham taking £29.9m from the Europa League.
The 2014-15 campaign led to the biggest deficit, as City finished second in the Premier League and Tottenham came fifth. City received £71.2m for reaching the Champions League semi-finals in the following season, but Spurs were only paid £17.7m from the Europa League - a difference of £53.5m.
Spurs also finished behind City in the Premier League table six times, with the cumulative prize money difference worth £6.6m.
The north Londoners did benefit in the 2013-14 season, as they only qualified for Europe because City beat Sunderland in the final of the EFL Cup.
Spurs gained £5.1m from their 2014-15 Europa League campaign which would not have been possible without City's success.
Taking into account all competitions, that produced a net financial loss for Spurs of £119.9m.