Gary Neville has called for Manchester City's owners to be removed from the Premier League after the club were found guilty of breaching financial rules. The Premier League confirmed this week that City had been found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges they faced from 2023.
Supporters, pundits and Premier League clubs now await the sanctions City will receive, though the club are anticipated to challenge the independent panel's verdict. They have until Friday, October 2, to lodge their appeal.
Neville's Proposed Punishment
While there have been suggestions that City could be stripped of trophies secured between 2009 and 2018 - the nine-year span when the alleged violations are said to have occurred - others have demanded the club be kicked out of the Premier League. There has also been speculation that the Citizens could face a massive points penalty that would essentially demote them, substantial fines or transfer restrictions.
However, Manchester United legend Neville believes the optimal solution is to prohibit City's current ownership from participating in the Premier League. Speaking on the latest episode of Stick to Football, he said: "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.
"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 have huge consequences - the biggest consequence - would be removing the owners."
Concerns Over the Premier League's Integrity
Neville added: "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 consequence, 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."
He 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."
Carragher and Regulator Weigh In
It comes as Carragher has urged City's ownership to offload the club following their guilty verdict. He wrote in the Telegraph: "Manchester City are the end of their Abu Dhabi era.
"The club can only heal and recover from the shame of their guilt once the custodians recognise they have failed in their duty and sell up. There is no way to sugar-coat this.
"The scale of the institutional cheating and lack of co-operation in the investigation means the position of all City executives involved is untenable. Fighting on will only prolong the agony of supporters who wrong believe their pleas of innocence."
The Independent Football Regulator has affirmed its authority to scrutinise the "suitability" of all Premier League club owners, directors and executives. This could potentially be a cause for concern for Khaldoon Al Mubarak and the Abu Dhabi group.
IFR chair David Kogan stated: "The independent commission's decision raises serious issues. The IFR has powers to assess the suitability of owners, directors and executives and we will use these powers where appropriate, in the interests of protecting the sustainability, honesty and integrity of English football where there is clear evidence of wrongdoing by individuals.
"This includes taking account of findings made by the Leagues. However, as the proceedings remain ongoing between Manchester City and the Premier League we will await further developments."
In related news, the Financial Times reported on Thursday that Al Mubarak was added to the UK's official diplomat list back in 2020, which would provide him with immunity from any potential criminal investigations - and most likely civil proceedings as well.
