Discussion on Premier League Controversies

It's been pretty ugly really, and I'm actually really gutted by it.

It, it, uh, it will be the same again in the Premier

League, but it feels right now

like it'll never be the same again.

Um, this is huge and, and s- listen, the rules that were put in

place, uh, are, are anti-competitive.

I don't particularly like those rules, but the rules are there and they have been

broken, and if the appeal fails, there will be a

punishment. And I messaged a, a City supporting mate of mine saying,

"See you in

League Two next season," and, uh- ...

he thought I was serious, 'cause we're definitely going down.

But, I, I mean, I, I, I think it's really sad, but

I also think it reflects so badly on the Premier

League that needs to have a long, hard,

cold stare at itself in the mirror at how badly the

Premier League has handled all of this.

After all these years, for this verdict to happen, I think the

Premier League has got it so badly wrong, and now we're gonna have to rewrite

history. All the things that we celebrated, we're thinking,

hang on a minute.

Is that, is that, was that right? You know, we, when I say celebrated,

I'm...

The joy of the Aguero moment for the n- neutral football fan.

Mm-hmm.

Can we actually, uh, did that really exist?

Are we questioning our own, you know, football experiences, our own football

history? And then I look across Manchester at the

Glazers saddling that great football club with

eye-watering debt, and apparently that's okay.

That's not a problem. You haven't broken any rules doing that.

So the Premier League needs to sort itself out into what is good

ownership and what's bad ownership.

Because I see a lot of good that the Man City owners have done.

They've tried to make their team competitive, and fine,

that they've broken the

rules and they should be punished for that.

I get that totally, so I don't think I'm avoiding

that subject.

But they've regenerated a part of Manchester.

They take women's football seriously.

They take academy football seriously, bringing through endless professional

footballers, not just for Man City but for other clubs.

There's a lot of good that Manchester City have done with the

money they've pumped

into football. And let me repeat that.

These owners have pumped money into football.

Yeah. And into-

Manchester United-

And into Manchester

... are taking money out of football. So where's the punishment for the Glazers?

Yeah, it's a, it's a strange one, aye, because there's, you know,

you could look at

all different scenarios at all different clubs in the Premier League, can't you?

And there's disadvantages and advantages.

Yeah, you can, and I think the ugly, really ugly side of this was, you know,

I, I'm a, I love football, okay? You-

Yeah

... we all love football, okay, but we have our own teams.

But generally, I love football, and yeah, we'll, we'll have a pop at some fans for

being deluded. We'll have a, a pop at some fans for celebrating too

much or

whatever it is. But it's all good knockabout banter

and fun, and we have a good

laugh with it as well. But now I'm seeing some

fans of rival clubs of Manchester City wanting a club to

die-

Yeah

... wanting the fans to be desperately unhappy

and sad.

Let me tell you, Man City fans will absolutely embrace it

if they get

relegated to League Two. I can't see that happening, by the way.

When you look at demotions, Rangers went into liquidation.

They ceased to exist.

So I'm not quite sure where the similarity is there.

Marseille, as you know, Tony-

Yeah

... that was about match fixing. That's nothing to do with mo-

what Man City have

done. And with Juventus, that was about a refereeing scandal,

refereeing corruption. That's nothing to do with Mo-

what Man City have done.

So any precedents from those clubs do not apply to Manchester City.

I can't see them being demoted or relegated.

I can see them having a massive points deduction from the start of next

season. Whether they're stripped of titles,

I don't think that the Premier League

wants to rewrite its own history.

Or maybe an embanga- embargo, and a longer one than normal, Rade.

Yeah-

Frankly

... I think that that could work. But then you,

you've got a situation where that

kinda stops players moving to a certain extent-

Mm

... and those individual players might

challenge that ruling, and they've got a

right to 'cause, uh, you know, you've, y- you're stopping their freedom to

do what they want in their careers.

There's a lot of ground to cover before we get to any kind of resolution.