Sky sports pundit, Gary Neville has called on the Premier League to bring forward Man City’s hearing on the charges of breaching financial rules in a bid to produce clarity on the situation.
Neville wants it done quickly to clear things up, and he’s worried it might not happen until after this season, which he says would not go down well with sides like Liverpool.
The Premier League leveled 115 charges at City in February 2023 for alleged breaches of FFP/PSR from 2009 to 2018. During these years, City won the league three times, although the club insists they didn’t do anything wrong.
Everton lost 10 points earlier this season after being found guilty of their own charge, and is now fighting against the decision. The Toffees could find themselves in more trouble though after they and Nottingham Forest were hit with further charges.
At a Culture, Media and Sport select committee meeting on Tuesday, Premier League CEO Richard Masters revealed a date for City’s case has been set, but didn’t say when. On the Stick To Football podcast, Neville said it’s very important to deal with City’s case quickly.
He shared his thoughts: “I would like to see an amendment to FFP, I never agreed with it in the first place, the way that it currently is. It stops clubs, like Newcastle United with wealthy owners, being able to get up to the top.
“It was brought in by elite clubs, to protect the elite clubs as they are the highest revenue-generating teams. I don’t like it and there needs to be a change to the rules.
“One of the diversion tactics is that they say that the Premier League are only picking on the small clubs, what about Manchester City? That’s the big elephant in the room, that City’s charges haven’t been brought forward.
“Accepting that it’s a lot more complex, I was uncomfortable that Richard Masters said there has been a date set [for a hearing], but he couldn’t reveal when it was. This told me that, and I might be wrong, we’re not going to like the date, it’s maybe going to be in the summer, beyond this season.
“It’s in the interest of Manchester City, and everybody, to bring that case forward, accelerate the process and do it quicker. It can’t go on, and it’s damaging to the Premier League.”
Neville then went on to add: “Some of the charges against Manchester City are related to the fact that to get around the £105m in three years that is acceptable, they’ve put costs that should have been within Manchester City, into their operating company which is the City Football Group.
“The ridiculous suggestion, which I don’t know whether it’s true or not, is that Roberto Mancini was being paid part of his wage in the Middle East for appearances.
“These charges need to be brought forward, even if it’s some of the simpler ones out of the 115 — there is a date set, but Richard Masters wouldn’t share it.”
Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher agreed with Neville, urging City to clear their names as soon as possible.
Wright said:
“The sad situation that we find ourselves in, and the Manchester City players find themselves in, is that as a team, arguably playing some of the greatest football we’ve ever seen in the Premier League with players achieving unbelievable things, the owners of that club owe it to the players to clear their name.
“All those achievements, for example, we were waxing lyrical about Kevin De Bruyne, all of that will be tainted for him if they do not sort this out — they owe it those players to clear this up.”
Carragher added:
“Manchester City can fix this straight away. If you were in their position, and you’ve got something over you, you want to clear your name. The fact that they are dragging this on, makes it worse.”
