Full transcript of Neville’s fiery European Super League "bottle merchants" rant
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Gary Neville blasted the six Premier League clubs planning to break away and join a European Super League in a sensational eight-minute rant on Sky Sports.
The Times revealed on Sunday that Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham are part of proposals to join the Super League, which would see a selected group of top-level clubs compete in a new European competition.
Neville was left absolutely seething after hearing the news, descending into an extraordinary tirade following Manchester United’s 3-1 win over Burnley.
And we’re on hand with the full transcript of the former United defender’s emotional response below.
“The reaction to it is that it’s been damned and rightly so. I’m a Manchester United fan and have been for 40 years of my life but I’m disgusted, absolutely disgusted,” he said.
“I’m disgusted with Manchester United and Liverpool the most. Liverpool say they’re the people’s club, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, the fan’s club. Manchester United, 100 years, born around workers around here, and they’re breaking into a league without competition, that they can’t be relegated from. It’s an absolute disgrace and we have to wrestle back the power in this country from the clubs at the top of this league and that includes my club.
“I’ve been talking for 12 months as part of another group for an independent regulator to bring checks and balances into place to stop this happening. It’s pure greed, they’re imposters, the owners of this club, the owners of Liverpool, the owners of Manchester City, the owners of Chelsea, they have nothing to do with football in this country.
“There are 100-odd years of football in this country with fans that have lived and loved these clubs and they need protecting, the fans need protecting. I benefited from football hugely, I’ve made money out of football, I invested money into a football club and now I’m not against money in football, but the principles and ethos of fair competition and the rights to play the game, so Leicester win the league, they go into the Champions League.
“Manchester United aren’t even in the Champions League, neither are Arsenal – you watched them earlier today, they're an absolute shambles of a football club at the moment, Tottenham aren’t in the Champions League at the moment, and they want a God-given right to be in there? They’re an absolute joke and the time has come now, independent regulator, stop these clubs having the power base – enough is enough.
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“The motivation is greed. My reaction earlier on wasn’t an emotional reaction, deduct them all points tomorrow, put them at the bottom of the league and take the money off them, seriously you have to stamp on this. It’s criminal, it’s a criminal act against football fans in this country, make no mistake about it, this is the biggest sport in the world, the biggest sport in this country and it’s a criminal act against the fans, simple as that. Deduct points, deduct the money and punish them.
“They’re bottle merchants, you never hear from the owners of these clubs. Absolute bottle merchants, they’ve got no voice. They’ll probably hide for a few weeks and then say it was nothing to do with them, they were only talking about it. Seriously, in the midst of a pandemic, an economic crisis, football clubs at National League level going bust nearly, furloughing players, and these lots are having Zoom calls about breaking away and basically creating more greed. Joke.”
“They’ll be amending that statement as we speak because they’ll have seen the reaction, not just from people from this channel, not just social media, not just the Government, they’ll be backtracking because they are bottle merchants, this lot, let’s make no mistake about it.
“It was the same with Big Picture, they bottled out of that a week later, so from my point of view, listening to this, we talk about big clubs – Manchester United have acted as a small club for about eight to 10 years, they’ve been a small club in mentality. Arsenal have been like a small club, some of the other clubs that are missing out and actually doing really well, they act like bigger clubs.
“Being a big club isn’t just about having a global fanbase, it’s acting properly at the right time. I always thought Bayern Munich were a decent club when I played against them, I’d like to think Manchester United and Liverpool would stand there in the face of this and say something isn’t right here.
“Let’s collaborate with the game here to try and get a better competition, a better Champions League, I’m not against the modernisation of competitions – they’ve moved forward over the last 100 or so years. I’m not for everything standing still, but this is a grab, an absolute grab at a time, the timing is hideous. What world are these people living in, to think they can bring this forward at this moment of time?
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“They’ve got no loyalty to this country and these leagues. Enough is enough. There isn’t a football fan in this country that won’t be seething listening to this conversation and these announcements. Roy loves Man United, I love United, Micah loves Man City, this is disowning your own club stuff, this.
“Seriously, how can you even think about coming to watch a game here when you’ve left 14 clubs in the Premier League behind? The Championship clubs are dead, your EFL 1 and 2 clubs are dead, the National League, the pyramid system that you’ve fought for, for 150 years, is gone because of six clubs. Absolutely embarrassing, it’s never going to happen, let them break away but punish them straight away.
“If they announce a letter of intent has been signed by six clubs then they should be punished heavily. Massive fines, point deductions, take the titles off them, who cares? Give the title to Burnley, or Fulham, let Fulham stay up – relegate Liverpool, United and Arsenal because those three clubs, to be fair, are the history of this country, they should be the ones that suffer most.
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“Yeah, Chelsea, City, new money in the game, I’m not happy with them either, let’s be clear. Tottenham, I’m not really too bothered about, but Man United, Liverpool and Arsenal should know better. The history and tradition that runs through those three clubs is enormous, I value it, I value the history and tradition that runs through those three clubs but they leave a lot to be desired at this moment in time.
“Liverpool Football Club, seriously, you go to the streets of Liverpool, I don’t have a great relationship with them at all, I don’t like them and they don’t like me, but the one thing I always thought about them was that they were honest, they had integrity, they’d look after their people, they’d look after their own – that’s gone, forget that. If they sign that letter of intent, they’re as bad as the rest of them.”
READ MORE:Roy Keane and Micah Richards slam "pure greed" and "absolute disgrace" European Super League
READ MORE:Ole Gunnar Solskjaer takes Paul Scholes' advice at half-time of Man Utd vs Burnley
- Gary Neville
- Manchester United FC
- Chelsea FC
- Tottenham Hotspur FC
- Liverpool FC
- Arsenal FC
- Manchester City FC
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