Gary Neville picks ‘only fair punishment’ for Man City over FFP scandal with ‘Trump-esque’ response ridiculed

Gary Neville has revealed what he believes is the only fit and proper punishment for Manchester City in the wake of the “chilling” news that they have been found guilty of 114 charges of financial irregularities, and with the club’s Premier League rivals warning that relegation to the Championship will not be a steep enough punishment.

An explosive week has seen Manchester City caught up in the biggest scandal to ever engulf the Premier League after they were found guilty of multiple counts of breaking FFP over nine years between 2009 and 2018.

While it is important to note, in the interests of fair reporting, that City continue to protest their innocence – and with TEAMtalk exclusively revealing, in conversation with a top sports lawyer, that they are prepared to take their case all the way to the High Court – speculation on what punishment will be meted out to the club has rapidly gathered pace.

To that end, a respected journalist has revealed Blues have been told they face the threat of being sent into ‘football oblivion’ and could be sent tumbling down the football pyramid.

Now, after assessing the level of their alleged crimes, Neville has revealed what he deems as the only fair punishment.

“Manchester City will recover as a football club because Manchester City have been there longer than these owners, they’ll be there long after them, and it’s got an immense history,” Neville said on The Overlap.

“Points deductions, fines, transfer bans, removing the titles – not giving them to others, just removing the titles – it’s significant punishments. The only punishment that would be fair would be to have huge consequences – the biggest consequence – would be removing the owners.

“That is the only consequence if I was Manchester City that I would be worried about. And as a fan of Manchester City, if you wanted to keep the investment that you’ve currently got, that would be the one I’d be most concerned about.

“However, if you’re in football and you’re thinking about consequences, what can be more serious than industrial-level financial doping that we’ve seen and they’ve been found guilty of? I’m not celebrating…”

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Neville appalled by Man City scandal

Neville continued: “I’m chilled. This is chilling. I support Manchester United, [Jamie Carragher] supports Liverpool, [Roy Keane and Ian Wright] played for Manchester United, Arsenal, [Jill Scott] played for City.

“This is chilling to listen to this. It’s chilling. The Italian game has suffered immeasurably over the last 25 years, maybe from after [Calciopoli]. You know, we’ve played Juventus, we’ve alluded to this before, we felt at the time that this wasn’t right.

“And I’m not saying that’s going to happen to the Premier League. But we always think we’ve got this enormous integrity, the Premier League, that we are the league that sets the standard, and it’s other leagues that have got corruption, fraud, doping scandals, match fixing, referee scandals.

“This has now come into our country; this has now come into our league. This is the greatest export that we have in our country in the world.

“If you go around the world and talk about Liverpool, Manchester, Arsenal – people talk about the Premier League more than anything when you tell them where you’re from in the world. And at the moment, we’re being dragged through the mud.”

Amid Neville’s rant, David Ornstein has also shared what he thinks will be the most likely punishment handed out.

City, though, continue to plead their innocence and will appeal the verdict after claiming the commission’s decision ‘contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe’.

City said ‘a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all (the club’s) positions’.

Neville described the ‘irrefutable evidence’ remark as “bizarre”, adding: “It was a bit Trump-esque, wasn’t it!”

Premier League clubs seeks rapid conclusion

Whatever is decided, Premier League sides are keen to ensure any punishment meted out to City is administered this season, with a report revealing why all other 19 sides feel relegation to the Championship is not deemed severe enough.

Quoting an unnamed Premier League side, The Times revealed: “The new regulations around the timescale of appeals have to apply.

“We have all waited far too long, and it is high time that this whole thing came to an end. The view of many of the clubs is that it would simply be unacceptable, after all this time, for it to go beyond the end of the season.”

As to what punishment they could face, The Guardian, quoting an unnamed source, said relegation to the second tier would not present a strong enough punishment.

“Relegation to the Championship for one season would be insufficient,” a club source told the paper. “The commission has to arrive at a punishment that is proportionate for years of sustained and deliberate cheating, as well as providing a strong deterrent to it happening again.”

Meanwhile, City have been warned they face losing several of their key stars for 20-30% below market value as a worrying knock-on effect of their misdemeanours emerged.

Two of those are already been touted for moves to Liverpool, and our transfer correspondent, Fraser Fletcher, has explained why the Reds will be very much in the market for their signings if the opportunity arises.