Gary Neville questions integrity of Premier League after Everton points deduction
Gary Neville has labelled the Premier League’s punishment of Everton as an “absolute disgrace” and questioned their integrity.
The Toffees were hit with the strongest punishment in Premier League history as they were docked ten points for breaching profit and sustainability rules, sparking outrage across football.
But while speaking on The Overlap (23 November), Neville admitted he would be “furious” if he was an Everton fan and questioned if the Premier League would have punished the Big 6 teams in the same way.
“We’ll start with Everton, they’re absolutely fuming on Merseyside,” he said.
“The Premier League is broken in terms of governance. It was broken many years ago. How they didn’t stamp down after the ESL (European Super League) was unbelievable.
“I’d be furious if I was an Everton fan. I’d feel like it’s an absolute disgrace what you’ve done to my club. But on the other hand Everton have done wrong themselves. They have committed a financial crime within the game, a sort of irregularity, so they should be punished.
“What they’re now being is the scapegoat. They’ll feel they’re the scapegoat for this ‘tougher new Premier League’ which to be honest with you doesn’t exist really.
“Because the Big 6, they’re bullies. They’ve done it to Everton. Would they have really done this to a Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea? They wouldn’t probably do that. The test is ahead.”
Horrendous
Everton have been royally screwed over here and it’s so evident because the entire country knows and has voiced their outrage at it.
We’re almost a week on from the decision being made public and yet nobody has said that they agree with it, meaning everyone will know we have been hard done by.
For Gary Neville, a born and bred Mancunian, to call out the fact that the Premier League are likely showing favouritism towards the top clubs in the league is enough to let everyone understand what is really happening here.
The Premier League are trying to make an example out of the Toffees right now and so far they’ve been successful in doing so, but the club is going to fight it and surely from the backlash alone it’s clear that it will be reduced.
It will be interesting to see how strong the punishments are for Manchester City and Chelsea in the future since there is now a precedent for a simple £20m breach.
In other Everton news, Simon Jordan calls out “Shakedown” on Toffees amid £300m court case.