Former Rangers owner Sir David Murray believes Manchester City will be relegated to the Championship to prevent the "collapse" of the Premier League. The 10-time English champions faced 114 charges from the Premier League and were found guilty of 113 of them.
The Premier League found City guilty of "systematically" breaching financial regulations for almost a decade. The club insists it has evidence to clear its name and will appeal the verdict. If the appeal fails, the club is expected to face one of the most severe punishments in English football history.
Murray compares City case to Juventus scandal
Speaking on the Graeme Souness Tackles podcast, Murray was asked by former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan about Rangers' use of EBTs but avoided comparisons with the Glasgow club. Instead, he referenced the Calciopoli scandal in Italy, where Juventus was relegated to Serie B and stripped of two Serie A titles.
Murray said: "The one thing you’ve got to remember, let’s be serious here, have skeletons in their cupboard. Man City are not the only club that have ever broken the rules. Nobody’s maybe taken it to this extreme. So coming on today, I’ve done a bit of homework. Where were the parallels and similar situations? The nearest one I thought was Juventus. That was as big a story as it is today. Juventus got put down a division, the players stayed with them, they got a penalty but four other clubs went down with them as well."
He added: "But do you know why it was all smoothed over? Because Italy won the World Cup two weeks before in 2006. So euphoria. That’s not exactly happening in England at the moment, unfortunately, but I think that smoothed it over a bit."
Murray predicts relegation but no title stripping
Murray outlined his prediction for City's punishment: "I don’t think this will end up as a big a mess. I think they’ll be fine. I don’t think they’ll lose trophies. I think they might be put down a division but they can’t afford to destroy because the Premier League could collapse around this, the whole Premier League."
