Wayne Rooney has said he would feel uncomfortable accepting a Premier League winners' medal if Manchester City were to be stripped of their titles, distancing himself from former teammate Rio Ferdinand's stance.
City were found guilty of 114 of 115 charges made against them by the Premier League last week and face a number of sanctions, ranging from huge fines, points deductions and even expulsion from the league. United finished second behind City in two of the league seasons during the period under investigation – 2011/12 under Sir Alex Ferguson and again in 2017/18 with Jose Mourinho at the helm.
Ferdinand's medal call
Rio Ferdinand, part of that 2011/12 squad that missed out on the final day of the season, has called for another league winners' medal to be added to his collection while David de Gea has also questioned whether he is owed two more.
While Rooney believes the right move now is for City to be relegated from the top flight, the former United skipper does not see sense in the titles they won retrospectively handed to other teams.
Rooney's stance
United had an eight point lead at the summit of the league with just six games remaining during the back-end of the 2011-12 season. But costly defeats to City and Wigan and a 4-4 draw with Everton having led 4-2 blew them off course.
'I have heard Rio has come out saying about getting another Premier League medal… I wouldn't really feel comfortable accepting another Premier League medal, if I'm being honest,' he said on Stick To United. 'I don't think we deserve it, we didn't do enough that season to win the league. I think we were six or seven points clear with four or five games to go and we threw it away.
'I've seen everything that has come out over the past few days and listening to people and I was putting myself in a Man City player's shoes… they're players, they're doing everything they can to try and win the Premier League title and in their mind they have done it, if those players have no understanding of what is going on above them, if that happened to me… I would be absolutely devastated.
'It might happen, they might take them [medals] away, but I wouldn't want it [a medal] because I don't think as a team we deserved it that year because obviously we didn't finish first. So when I see team-mates saying "I want a medal", I'm happy with the five I've won. I wouldn't want this one. Should they get it stripped for what the owners have done? Yeah maybe, but I wouldn't feel comfortable accepting it.'
