Gary Neville says rivals pushing for punishment for Man City are ENVIOUS

Gary Neville thinks Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal are pushing hard for the Premier League to punish Manchester City because they are jealous of the reigning champions.

The governing body charged City with committing multiple financial rules breaches across a nine-year period on Monday and referred the case to an independent commission.

Highlighting the issues with Financial Fair Play within the English top flight, Neville also insisted that current regulations will always see the same football clubs ‘at the very top’ of the pyramid, with smaller clubs not able to compete with their revenue streams even when bought by extremely wealthy owners.

City’s charges relate to financial information regarding revenue, details of manager and player remuneration, UEFA regulations, profitability and sustainability and co-operation with the governing body’s ongoing investigations.

Allegedly committing financial breaches from September 2009 to the 2017-18 season, the reigning champions were able to launch themselves into the Premier League’s elite alongside Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, who previously dominated the top four before Tottenham’s emergence in the ‘big six’.

Gary Neville insisted he is not a fan of FFP regulations as they keep the same teams at the top

The Premier League charged Manchester City with breaking several financial rules on Monday

The champions have been accused of flouting rules more than 100 times across nine seasons

City have since chalked up multiple domestic trophies and established one of the most enviable teams in world football, marshalled by distinguished head coach Pep Guardiola.

‘There’s been massive respect towards Manchester City over the last seven or eight years, in terms of what we’ve seen on the pitch,’ Neville admitted.

‘They are determined that they’ve not done anything wrong, and I feel as if they don’t like the idea of the established elite not liking what they are doing. 

‘Clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal – the historic, traditional big clubs, don’t like this idea of the newcomer coming on the block and doing what they’re doing.

‘They may use it in their favour as a siege mentality in the next few months. I’m a bit worried about what’s happening inside the club from a football perspective, and how they’re playing. Something isn’t quite right.’

Perhaps surprisingly given his allegiance with Manchester United, Neville went on to say that he felt sympathy towards City.

‘On the financial side, I do have some sympathy for Manchester City. If you look at what Jack Walker (former Blackburn owner) did in 1992, 1993, 1994, that was financial doping but, it was deemed to be something completely different because he was a local businessman who pumped money into his club.

‘I’m not a fan of the Financial Fair Play Regulations. It means you’ll always have the same clubs at the very top, because their revenues are higher and you’ll always have the lower clubs lower down, because they can’t compete with the revenue.

Manchester City’s portfolio of trophies boomed during the alleged spell of financial breaches

City could have their titles stripped, have points deducted or face expulsion from the league

‘We do need sustainability and cost controls in football, and this is one of the biggest decisions in the next 12 to 18 months.

‘When I speak to Premier League owners, what they are really concerned about is, they aren’t up against local businessmen anymore. They are up against owners who have trillions of pounds where money is not an object.

‘There does need to be some level of control. Whether Manchester City are guilty or not, that will work itself out in the next six months, or however long it takes.’

Neville urged that, regardless of trophy success and boosts in revenue, City will never be ‘bigger’ than Manchester United in terms of power on a global scale.

He claimed that, if ‘true sustainability’ was put in place in the Premier League, his old club would win the title every single season because of the enormity of their revenue streams.

‘If football was about true sustainability, Manchester United would probably always win the league. Their revenue is so high, that they would have so much money to spend on players, that it would become very unfair on the rest,’ Neville added.

Neville suggested that the Glazer family – Manchester United’s owners – were envious of City

Neville thinks Erik ten Hag’s United would always win the league in a ‘truly sustainable’ model

‘We’ll never see Bournemouth, Brighton or Brentford, if you didn’t have owner-funding in football.

‘When Manchester City started to present sponsorship or commercial revenues that were higher than Manchester United, Real Madrid and Liverpool, people would have started to think something is wrong.

‘City can never be as big a club as United on the global scale, when it comes to power. However, City do have greater revenues at this moment in time. That is something that is slightly unbelievable, and they’re going to have to answer.

‘The owners have to clear themselves because if they do find themselves guilty, it will be a real problem for them, and it will be really damaging to their reputation.’

If found guilty, City could be heavily deducted points in the Premier League, expelled from the top flight or even stripped of their titles during the alleged period of breaches. 

Neville was speaking on The Overlap Live Fan Debate, in partnership with Sky Bet.