Man City appeal: Neville says owners cannot retain status
Gary Neville says Manchester City's owners would struggle to retain their status if the club's guilty verdict survives the Man City appeal. The Premier League champions lodged a comprehensive challenge after an independent commission found them guilty of serious financial rule breaches spanning nine years.
Key Takeaways
- City filed a "comprehensive" appeal after being found guilty of serious Premier League financial breaches over nine years.
- Neville says it is hard to see how the owners can pass the owners' and directors' test if the verdict stands.
- The panel found City inflated revenue by more than £900m via deals the league called "sham".
- Telegraph reporting cites a 2015 Etihad statement that undermines City's appeal defence on sponsorship funding.
The Man City appeal is now the centre of English football's biggest regulatory fight. On Friday the club confirmed it had lodged a challenge against the independent commission's guilty finding, which the Premier League published earlier in the week for "all charges related to serious breaches".
According to the league, possible sanctions include a fine, a points deduction or, in the worst case, expulsion. City have protested their innocence throughout a case that dates back to 2018. For more coverage of high-stakes investigations, see True Crime & Unsolved Mysteries on BlasterPost.
What did Gary Neville say about the Man City appeal?
Speaking after the ruling, Neville argued that English football has been "dragged through the mud" and that the focus should not stop at fines or short-term points hits. He said the ownership group would find it "very difficult" to "retain their status" if the guilty verdict still stands after appeal.
"It's hard to see how the Man City owners can comply with the owners' and directors' test in this country if the verdict remains," Neville said, as reported by Sky Sports.
The former Manchester United captain and Salford City co-owner added that clubs are "protected assets" and "community assets", so owners must meet the rules set out in that test. He called applying the owners' and directors' test, then reviewing whether achievements from the period should still stand, the "only appropriate punishment".
Why does the guilty verdict matter if the appeal is ongoing?
The investigatory panel found City artificially inflated revenue by more than £900m, using what the league called "sham" deals, to circumvent financial fair-play rules. That, the league's case holds, helped the club buy elite players during a period of domestic dominance.
Neville warned that if the verdict survives, the era will be "tainted forever" and the titles themselves "tarnished". He said he would "snap your hand off" for a fine or even a heavy points deduction, because those would only damage the club "for a moment in time" compared with ownership consequences.
What evidence is said to undermine City's defence?
The Telegraph reported that City's appeal claims commercial contracts were paid by the Abu Dhabi government rather than topped up by the owners. That claim, the paper said, is undercut by a 2015 Etihad Airways submission to US government departments stating that assertions the Abu Dhabi government paid for the club sponsorship were "false" and that Etihad funded the deal from its own liquidity.
City maintain a body of "irrefutable evidence" will overturn the commission's findings. The Man City appeal will now test whether that defence holds—and whether, as Neville argues, ownership status itself is on the line.