‘Corrupt, Lawless’ – Roy Keane and Gary Neville clash over Everton points deduction
Roy Keane and Gary Neville have clashed over Everton being handed a 10-point deduction in the Premier League for breaching FFP rules.
The Toffees were handed the penalty for breaching profit and sustainability rules, with outrage from the wider football community about the harshness of the punishment.
But while speaking on The Overlap (23 November), Keane and Neville clashed after the Irishman told the blues to “take their medicine” and move on from it.
“Could Everton not just hold their hands up, take their medicine? I know it’s extreme, ten points, but it brings a bit of closure to Everton, they’ve had a difficult few years,” Keane said.
“We all think from a footballing point of view they’ve still got enough to stay up. If you look at it, they’ve won four games they’ll have enough to stay up, cup game coming up they’ll get the good feeling back around the club.
“Just take their medicine and move on and learn from their past mistakes.”
But Neville was quick to respond, claiming that the faith and trust in the Premier League was gone.
“You make a point about why wouldn’t they take their punishment, it’s because the trust and faith has gone completely,” he said.
“The greed, I’m not going to say corruption, I’m going to say the greed and selfishness is out of control. It’s lawless.
“The Premier League is a defunct organisation because they’ve basically got 20 clubs voting with self-interest and the greater game at heart.”
Powerless
Neville is bang on the money here. Why would we accept a punishment that we don’t feel is fair, from an organisation in the Premier League that we don’t feel have been right in their process.
We worked alongside the league for years to ensure that this never happened, and they had the power to prevent us from doing certain things that would have led to breaches.
Now they’ve plucked a ten-point punishment out of thin air, the strongest punishment in Premier League history, with no precedent or even any outlines to suggest what could have been handed out.
Keane’s point is one of just putting it behind us and getting on with it because we’re still in a strong position to avoid relegation, but the truth is we don’t deserve to be in this position right now.
We shouldn’t accept it because then it means we’re accepting they’re right, and they’re not. We have to fight it and any sort of reduction will make it worthwhile.
In other Everton news, Lineker and Shearer agree on Toffees star verdict ahead of Euro 2024.