Neville calls for Man City owners to be removed after guilty verdict on financial charges

Gary Neville has called for Manchester City’s owners to be barred from the Premier League following the club’s guilty verdict on financial rule breaches, describing the outcome as “chilling” for the integrity of English football.

The Premier League confirmed this week that an independent panel found City guilty of financial charges first brought against the club in 2023. The alleged infractions cover a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018. City are expected to appeal the decision and have until Friday, 2 October to do so.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, the former Manchester United defender dismissed the most commonly discussed sanctions — points deductions, fines, transfer embargoes and the removal of titles — as falling short of what the situation demands.

“Points deductions, fines, transfer bans, removing the titles — not giving them to others, just removing the titles — it’s significant punishments,” Neville said. “The only punishment that would be fair, would have huge consequences — the biggest consequence — would be removing the owners.”

Neville was careful to separate the club from its current ownership, arguing that City’s identity and history would survive a change at the top. “Manchester City will recover as a football club because Manchester City have been there longer than these owners, they’ll be there long after them and it’s got an immense history,” he said.

He also drew a stark comparison with Italian football’s Calciopoli scandal, warning that the Premier League’s reputation for integrity is not immune to lasting damage. “The Italian game has suffered immeasurably over the last 25 years,” Neville said. “We always think we’ve got this enormous integrity, the Premier League, that we are the league that sets the standard.”

Neville stressed he was not celebrating the verdict. “I’m chilled. This is chilling,” he said, adding that the scale of the wrongdoing — which he labelled “industrial-level financial doping” — demanded a response proportionate to its severity.

The wider football world, including rival Premier League clubs, is now waiting to learn what punishment the panel will impose on City, with the appeal process likely to extend the timeline before any final sanction is confirmed.