Neville asks Sky Sports to drop him from City coverage amid financial charges cloud

Gary Neville has asked Sky Sports to take him off Manchester City matches until the club’s Premier League financial charges are fully resolved, describing the situation as “really bad for the Premier League” after City thrashed 10-man Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield.

The request came on the back of an independent commission finding Manchester City guilty last month of breaching Premier League financial rules across a nine-year period. The club now faces the prospect of a points deduction or more severe sanctions, with a final verdict expected in January or February.

“This is the first Manchester City game that I have done today since the charges or guilty verdicts were handed out a few weeks ago,” Neville said after the match, where he had been on commentary duty alongside Peter Drury and Jamie Carragher. “We were just doing the podcast then and said if you could take me off Manchester City games moving forward for the next few months until the verdicts have been heard, I would be absolutely delighted.”

Neville, a one-club man at Manchester United and a lifelong rival of City, was careful to credit the players on the pitch. City’s win extended their unbeaten run to six games at the start of the season, and Neville acknowledged the performance deserved full recognition.

“To come and win at Anfield is really difficult, we should be eulogising over them without a but or any hesitation,” he said. “But there is that thing in the back of your mind.”

The former right-back explained that the pending verdict made it impossible to assess City’s league position with any certainty. “At the end of the game, it is quite hard because you are imagining basically if these guilty verdicts are confirmed in January or February, then Manchester City are not going to be in the position they are in and there is going to be a huge cloud hanging over the whole league.”

Neville concluded that the ongoing uncertainty was damaging to English football’s top flight as a whole. “Which is not good for the Premier League right now, and that is what I have just recognised today. Really bad for the Premier League, and it is going to continue for a few months.”

City return to action in the Champions League this week with a fixture against Paris Saint-Germain.