Gary Neville warns Premier League faces Italian-style decline after Man City verdict

Gary Neville has voiced serious concerns regarding the integrity of the Premier League after Manchester City were found guilty of financial doping. The ruling revealed that the club inflated its financial position by over £900 million between 2009 and 2018.

The former Manchester United defender drew parallels to the infamous 2006 Calciopoli scandal in Italy, which saw Juventus stripped of titles and relegated. Neville expressed his alarm at the potential long-term damage to the competition's global standing.

This is not celebratory. The Italian game has suffered immeasurably in the last 25 years. We always thought that we've got an enormous integrity in the Premier League, that we are the league that sets the standard. Now this is coming to our country. We are being dragged through the mud. Gary Neville

While Manchester City continue to deny the allegations and prepare an appeal, Neville dismissed their potential defense. He insisted that standard penalties like points deductions or stripping titles would not suffice, arguing that the only fair consequence for industrial-level financial doping would be the removal of the club's current ownership.