Absolutely. I’m not even sure it’s about stopping City any more, as much as increasing the ‘entertainment’ value by keeping it close - not very entertaining if City are winning by 10-20 points every season.
There’s a decent documentary on Netflix at the moment about match fixing in the NBA. A referee was made the patsy for the whole debacle of course, but the way that league was managed by the hierarchy, the way referees were appointed and the type of people who were appointed to important positions (very much company men), and the kowtowing to TV has striking parallels with the way top level football is run. Just because bribes aren’t taken doesn’t mean cheating isn’t going on.