Gary Neville asks Sky Sports to take him off Man City games while ‘huge cloud hangs over Premier League’
Gary Neville doesn’t want to be on Sky Sports duty for Manchester City games while their punishment for breaching Premier League rules is undecided.
Neville was on commentary as Enzo Maresca’s side dismantled Liverpool in the second half at on Sunday. Ryan Gravenberch’s second yellow card was followed quickly by goals from Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki as City maintained their 100 per cent record in the Premier League.
It was a bizarre atmosphere at Anfield before, during and after a game which, when all is said and done, might be entirely meaningless.
City were found guilty of breaching 114 Premier League rules by an independent commission last month, as the panel found them to have used ‘sham’ sponsorship deals to boost they earnings by around £900m between 2009 and 2018.
The club have now appealed that verdict as they insist upon their innocence and claim they have ‘irrefutable evidence’ to prove it, in the form of documents showing that the sponsorship funds came from the Abu Dhabi government rather from their owners.
READ: 16 Conclusions from Liverpool 0-3 Man City: Doku, Gravenberch, Cherki and the futility of existence
The initial three-man commission has already seen this evidence and ‘concluded it was an explanation that the club had concocted well after the event in an attempt to conceal the realities of the Disguised Funding Scheme’, but City hope an all-new panel will rule in their favour.
The original commission is currently deciding on City’s punishment, with a fine, transfer bans, points deductions and even Premier League expulsion all possible, while it’s also been suggested the club should have their titles stripped in a retrospective action.
And while Premier League executives consider voting to suspend City before the appeal and sanction verdicts, Neville says he “would be absolutely delighted” if he didn’t have to do his job.
“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,” he said on Sky Sports.
“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.
“To come and win at Anfield is really difficult, we should be eulogising over them without a but or any hesitation, but there is that thing in the back of your mind.
“They have done a brilliant job here today. They have dominated the game in the last 20 minutes, from the red card onwards. They have dug in and I think players like [Gianluigi] Donnarumma, [Ruben] Dias and Anderson, in that first-half were excellent. They stood strong as a group.”
He added: “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, 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.”
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