Gary Neville has expressed his anger towards the Premier League so-called ‘big six’ following a shocking attempt to form a breakaway European Super League.
On top of that, a fan-led review is underway, courtesy of the government, which will reportedly look into ownership models to improve the beautiful game in England.
Owners of the ‘big six’ clubs disgraced themselves this week and The Mirror sent a journalist to Palm Beach, where he refused to apologies to United fans for trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
“We nearly lost it, we nearly lost football in this country, in the way in which we’ve always known it which is fair and competitive. And we nearly lost our top six clubs from it. How can we be in that position ever again?” the footballer turned pundit told Sky Sports.
“Most of us would go along with the theory of an apology is acceptable. An apology is not acceptable in this instance, with regards to the six clubs. It can never be accepted, because last Sunday what they announced was the attempted murder of English football.
“They attacked to kill English football forever, and they would have done it if they could. They attempted to take £300m extra every single year for the next 23 years as a guarantee for a different competition that other clubs couldn’t get into.”
Neville, 46, has not held back since the ESL announcement calling for severe punishment for all clubs involved, including his own.
“Any punishments that can be handed to those six clubs in the short term should be given to them. Any punishments that can be given to them legally should be given, I’m absolutely certain of that,” he added.
“Do I want these six clubs in English football? Absolutely. We need them in English football. The Premier League is done without these six clubs, and they know that it’s done. We’d lose what would be a large part of the history of English football, but they have to be punished in whichever way they can.
“I think most football fans would be in support of the German model, but we don’t have that in this country, and it’s how we reverse out of that – the only way is not going to be through individual declarations for each club, it’s going to come from government legislation.”
The 50+1 fan-led ownership model would hand more power to the backs in the running of their clubs, the way we think it should be.
That is the ultimate aim of next weeks’ protests – organised by an anonymous group of Manchester United fans – to share the message of fans having a greater say, with a 50+1 model introduced in the future.
We can live in hope. The Glazers certainly won’t like it.
Read more: ‘Red Knights’: Glazers told to loosen Manchester United grip after ESL row
Drop the six into the same division as barrow and Bolton were they can flight for promotion.
Drop all six of them into the bottom division .Moving six clubs up into each division to take their place. Plus a substantial fine.