United legend to City players: your medals belong in the bin

"It was the result of cheating"

Roy Keane said that if he were a Manchester City player, he would put the medals he had won with the team "in the bin", following the Premier League's decision to find the club guilty of breaching more than 100 financial regulations.

The Premier League confirmed on Tuesday that Manchester City had inflated the club's commercial revenues by £830 million ($1.08 billion) between 2009 and 2018.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the club "systematically breached the Premier League's rules for almost an entire decade".

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Keane, the former Manchester United legend, wanted nothing to do with any medals he would have won as a City player over that period. He told ITV Sport: "If I were a player, I would 100% put those medals in the bin. Of course I would, this is cheating."

He added: "They won them on the pitch because the cheating was happening."

He continued: "They knew this would harm a lot of people, and yet they did it."

City deny any wrongdoing and said they were "surprised" by the decision. The club have until Friday 2 October to appeal against the ruling.

Between 2009 and 2018, Manchester City won three Premier League titles, the FA Cup and three League Cup titles.

Chief executive Ferran Soriano told the club's staff in a video message that the decision was the result of "a conspiracy theory on the part of the Premier League".

He added: "This has gone on for a long time, and so it is important to remind ourselves that the Premier League's entire case against us is based on a single false accusation, namely that the owner's personal money was somehow secretly funnelled into the club through some sponsors from Abu Dhabi."

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