Swindon Town manager Ian Holloway delivered an impassioned six-minute tirade against Manchester City, accusing the club of 'ruining' football and calling for their expulsion from both the Premier League and the EFL. The outburst came after Holloway was questioned about City being found guilty of breaching the Premier League's financial regulations. City reject the allegations and are appealing.
Holloway's 'Robbed' Claim
The 63-year-old, who managed Blackpool in the top flight for a single campaign during the nine-year timeframe in which City were determined to have violated 114 regulations, was asked before Swindon's home fixture against Crewe Alexandra whether he felt 'robbed' during the 2010-11 season. Blackpool suffered two narrow defeats to City by a single-goal margin that campaign.
In his lengthy reply, Holloway accused City of 'seriously denting football' and 'still lying now' during their appeal process. He does not believe former manager Pep Guardiola was implicated, but he wants the club's owners to 'get lost' and City to be relegated to non-league.
'The Game Worldwide Is Being Ruined'
Holloway recounted his frustrations from the 2010-11 season, saying: "To be honest with you, in that whole season, I felt robbed. My team played so well against Man City. We scored three perfectly good goals. We had one disallowed for being offside, and they scored two. One was not a foul, and the other one was offside."
He added: "So they were given a penalty, and the other goal was offside, and the referee sent me a letter saying we cost you nine points this year because we expected, oh, that must have been a foul because that was Man City, let alone them now cheating. The game worldwide is being ruined by people who are rich, who think they can do God knows what they want to it."
Calls for Stronger Rules
Holloway also criticised the financial disparities in football, questioning how clubs with small gates can pay high wages. He said: "How can you have a gate of 2,000 people and you pay what Salford are paying? None of it makes any sense. How can you be Wrexham and get all of that? None of it makes any sense."
He concluded: "They are disgraceful and they're still not owning up to it. I would absolutely take everything away from every single one of them and make them start again. Right now. It happened in Scotland, I would do it now." Holloway urged authorities to "get the hell down" and put City in non-league, saying: "Let's see if their owners would even bother if they have to do it right."
