Gary Neville believes English football is being “dragged through the mud” after an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules.
The Premier League confirmed earlier this week that Man City had been found guilty of "relying on sham agreements to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs" between 2009 and 2018.
City continue to deny any wrongdoing and have until October 2 to submit an appeal, but the verdict of the independent commission is viewed as damning, with any potential punishment expected to be substantial.
As well as the financial breaches City have been found guilty of, the independent commission also found the club guilty of all charges except one relating to non-cooperation with the Premier League investigation, while adding that "a number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects and that some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence".
The reputational damage of the independent commission’s findings, not only for City but for the Premier League, will be seismic and broadcaster and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville admits the decision is “chilling” and could have a lasting impact on the Premier League’s integrity.
“I am chilled. It (the guilty verdict) is chilling. This is not celebratory,” Neville said, speaking on the Overlap Podcast.
“We always think that we have got an enormous integrity, the Premier League, that we are the sort of league that sets the standard and that it is other leagues that have got corruption, fraud, doping scandals, match fixing, referee scandals. This is now coming to our country. This is now coming to our league.
“This (the Premier League) is the greatest export that we have in our country and the world. If you go around the world and you talk about basically Liverpool, Manchester, Arsenal, you talk about the Premier League.
“People talk about the Premier League more than anything when you tell them where you're from in the world. And at the moment, we're being dragged through the mud.”
People talk about the Premier League more than anything when you tell them where you're from in the world. And at the moment, we're being dragged through the mud
Gary Neville
During the period in which the financial breaches are said to have taken place, City established themselves as a domestic and European heavyweight, becoming the first team to win the Premier League with 100 points in the 2017-18 season under Pep Guardiola.
There are now, though, widespread calls for City to be stripped of their titles, effectively declaring nearly a decade of Premier League football null and void in the process.
Such punishment would be unprecedented in English football, and Neville says he never thought he would see something as bad as City’s industrial-scale financial doping during his career as a player or broadcaster.
“I never thought I would see something as bad as this in English football,” Neville continued.
“Forget Manchester City. It is shocking for the Premier League. It is shocking for English football.”
