Man City Women targeted with abuse after Premier League guilty verdict, warns Onuoha

Manchester City’s women’s team were subjected to inappropriate abuse in the immediate aftermath of the club’s Premier League guilty verdict, former City defender Nedum Onuoha has revealed, warning that Enzo Maresca’s men’s squad face similar scrutiny ahead of a high-profile fixture against Liverpool.

Onuoha, who made more than 100 appearances for City before joining QPR, said he learned through people who travelled with the women’s squad that the news of the verdict broke while the team were en route to London for their Women’s Super League clash with Charlton. The reception they received was deeply unsettling.

“They got to Euston and there was a bus there with a City badge on,” Onuoha told the Sun. “When they arrived at the hotel, some of the stuff being said — to call it inappropriate would be an understatement. There are people in the set-up who have had nothing to do with what this is all about. But they are having to live with that. It comes as a consequence. Their job is ten times harder.”

The independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all but one of the charges brought by the Premier League. The club have since lodged an appeal against the verdict.

Onuoha stressed that the uncertainty surrounding the club’s future is compounding the pressure on everyone connected to it. “The most difficult part is not knowing what will happen,” he said. “With every day that passes, you hear more. It was already the biggest story in the history of the Premier League. But now you’re hearing Andy Burnham, treasuries, tax, investments. It’s turned geopolitical.”

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham — referred to as Prime Minister in the source, though he holds the mayoralty — has previously expressed concern at the prospect of City’s owners selling the club. “They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester,” Burnham said. “Obviously, the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is. I can’t intervene more in the process. It would be wrong for me to do that.”

Onuoha’s warning is pointed: every time City’s players pull on the shirt or step off the team bus, they will face questions and hostility that have nothing to do with their performances on the pitch.