Gary Neville says Manchester City’s current owners should be forced to leave the Premier League if the club is found guilty of serious financial breaches, describing the case as damaging to English football’s reputation.
An independent commission ruled that Manchester City had committed serious breaches of Premier League financial regulations. It found that, between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons, the club used “fictitious” contracts and “disguised operational schemes” to inflate revenue by £830m.
Manchester City is expected to appeal against the ruling, with a deadline of Friday, October 2. Possible sanctions include substantial fines, points deductions, expulsion from the Premier League and the retrospective removal of titles won by the club.
Neville believes, however, that the most appropriate punishment would be a change of ownership.
“Manchester City Football Club itself will get through this because the club’s history extends far beyond these owners, and the club will continue to exist after they leave; it has a profound historical foundation,” he said.
“Points deductions, fines, transfer bans, stripping of titlesnot awarding titles to other teams, but simply revoking Manchester City’s honoursthese are all significant penalties. But the truly fair, greatly deterrent, and most severe punishment should be a change in club ownership.
“If I were Manchester City, that would be the only consequence that would concern me. And if you’re a Manchester City fan who wants to retain the current investment, that’s what you should be most worried about.”
Neville said he was not taking pleasure in the situation and warned that the case could have consequences well beyond Manchester City.
“But within football, when judging the severity of consequences, what could be worse than such large-scale financial doping that has already become established fact? I am not gloating.
“I am dismayed; this is chilling. I’m a Manchester United fan, Carragher supports Liverpool; Roy Keane and Ian Wright played for Manchester United and Arsenal respectively; Jill Scott played for Manchester City.”
He compared the potential impact with the long-term damage caused to Italian football by the Calciopoli scandal involving Juventus.
“Over the past 25 years, Italian football suffered immeasurable damage due to the Calciopoli scandal,” Neville said. “I’m not saying the Premier League will repeat Italy’s mistakes.
“But we have always prided ourselves on the Premier League’s high credibility, setting industry standards, always believing that corruption, fraud, financial irregularities, match-fixing, and refereeing scandals were problems only seen in other leagues.
“Yet now these things are happening in our country, in our league. The Premier League is our nation’s most brilliant calling card to the world.”
Neville’s comments followed concerns from former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham about the possible loss of Manchester City investors if the club is found guilty.
“I would be very worried if we lost them,” Burnham said. “They have been an important partner in building modern Manchester and have truly transformed Manchester City into a world-class team.”
On Wednesday, Manchester City’s main sponsor, Etihad Airways, said it was assessing its legal response after the commission’s ruling.
