Gary Neville says Manchester City will never have the edge over Manchester United in terms of global power despite their vast resources.
The former Reds defender said he had some sympathy with City after the club were levelled with more than 100 allegations of improper finance operations by the Premier League, stating he is “not a fan” of current Financial Fair Play rules.
However, the gigantic revenues brought in by City has alarmed Neville, who suggested it was almost “unbelievable” when compared to the worldwide status of United. Speaking on the latest The Overlap fan debate, the Sky Sports pundit says City’s owners could be landed with “a real problem.”
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He outlined: “When Manchester City started to present sponsorship or commercial revenues that were higher than Manchester United, Real Madrid and Liverpool, people would have started to think something is wrong.
“City can never be as big a club as United on the global scale, when it comes to power. However, City do have greater revenues at this moment in time. That is something that is slightly unbelievable, and they’re going to have to answer.
“The owners have to clear themselves because if they do find themselves guilty, it will be a real problem for them, and it will be really damaging to their reputation.” Neville claimed that if “true” sustainability was the ultimate criteria, United would come out on top every time.
He added: “If football was about true sustainability, Manchester United would probably always win the league. Their revenue is so high, that they would have so much money to spend on players, that it would become very unfair on the rest. We’ll never see Bournemouth, Brighton or Brentford, if you didn’t have owner-funding in football.”
Neville noted City’s insistence of no wrong-doing and said the allegations could create a “siege mentality” for the club for the rest of the season.
“They are determined that they’ve not done anything wrong, and I feel as if they don’t like the idea of the established elite not liking what they are doing,” he added.
“Clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal – the historic, traditional big clubs, don’t like this idea of the newcomer coming on the block and doing what they’re doing.
“They may use it in their favour as a siege mentality in the next few months. I’m a bit worried about what’s happening inside the club from a football perspective, and how they’re playing. Something isn’t quite right.”
Neville continued: “On the financial side, I do have some sympathy for Manchester City. I’m not a fan of the Financial Fair Play Regulations. It means you’ll always have the same clubs at the very top, because their revenues are higher and you’ll always have the lower clubs lower down, because they can’t compete with the revenue.
“There does need to be some level of control. Whether Manchester City are guilty or not, that will work itself out in the next six months, or however long it takes.
“Football does need to sort this issue out, because City will feel that to be able to compete with Manchester United, Liverpool and other massive clubs, they need an owner-funded model, or through their sponsorship funds.”
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