Gary Neville believes Manchester City should face a punishment with real weight if the club’s appeal against findings over financial fair play does not succeed, arguing that the consequences should reach far beyond a one-off fine.
Neville calls for titles and points punishment
The former Manchester United defender, who spent almost two decades at Old Trafford between 1992 and 2011, has joined other former Premier League players from the era of City’s rise in demanding that no special allowance is made for the champions.
City were found to have breached financial fair-play rules over the period from 2009 to 2018. Neville, now 51, said any failed appeal should bring sanctions severe enough to reflect the scale of the case.
- He said the club’s owners should leave.
- He believes honours won in the relevant years ought to be removed.
- He called for a points deduction imposed across several seasons.
Speaking on Overlap Daily, Neville said: “The owners should go, the titles from the appropriate period should be taken away, and there should be points penalties over a number of years.”
Premier League status still matters to Neville
For all his insistence on a substantial sporting penalty, Neville does not want to see City cast out of the top flight and tumbling down the Football League.
“I am not especially fixated on Manchester City being sent down to League One or League Two,” he said. “I want the club to remain in the Premier League.”
That position leaves room for a punishment that would hurt on the table without stripping east Manchester of its Premier League club altogether.
Economic fears around any ownership change
Neville said he understood why the Premier League, politicians and regulators might be concerned by the prospect of owners being removed. The economic impact, he said, could be considerable for the club itself, the city and the east Manchester area in particular.
But he maintained that those wider concerns should be treated as context rather than an argument for leniency.
- Neville accepts there are major financial implications for Manchester and its eastern districts.
- He recognises why authorities may be wary of forcing an ownership departure.
- He remains clear that, in his view, City should receive a serious footballing sanction if the appeal fails.
