GARY NEVILLE hopes the six rebel Premier League clubs are fined £100million each by Real Madrid and they end up ‘eating themselves’ in the messy fallout from the European Super League.
And fans are also calling on the so-called ‘Big Six’ to be hit with a punishment within the English game.
Neville was one of the strongest voices condemning Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and the two Manchester clubs for signing up to the 20-team breakaway franchise league.
Fans, players, managers and pundits together made their fury known and all six made a sheepish U-turn on Tuesday night to withdraw from the ESL – less than 48 hours after their public statements signalling their intentions.
But Neville still wants to see the Premier League sides made to pay for their initial plans which would likely have decimated the rest of English football.
The former United and England right-back told Sky Sports: “Florentino Perez might have them on a £100m fine and I hope he does.
“I hope Perez has got them on a massive fine to withdraw the lot of them and they basically end up eating each other.”
Speaking after only City had officially confirmed their exit intentions, he added: “Quite incredible.
“Large concern yesterday morning was waking up thinking that, for me particularly as a United fan, that Joel Glazer had put his name on a statement which you think what he went through in the takeover of Manchester United, they withstood a barrage of abuse and they went through it and you thought, ‘It’s going to be difficult for them to back down.’
“They haven’t backed down yet but the fact that City have enacted the withdrawal procedure and it looks like Chelsea are on the way, it’s done. It’s finished.
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“They will have their PR teams scrambling around to make this as lovely as possible in the next 24 hours, working out what the right time is to sort of, withdraw from it.”
Arsenal, Tottenham, United and Liverpool confirmed at 10.55pm last night they were backing out while Chelsea followed at 12.51am leaving the franchised closed shop in tatters.
Earlier in the bombshell evening, Ed Woodward resigned as executive vice-chairman at Old Trafford and will leave his post at the end of 2021.
Neville continued: “We obviously don’t know why the timing is now.
“The leeches could’ve thrown him under the bus or it could’ve been the sensible thing has happened.
“Ed Woodward knew it would get hot in the kitchen and he had to get out of there.
“Every single executive who sits at the Premier League table, on these Uefa and Fifa committees, they need throwing out of that club. There is no way they can be trusted.
“Ed Woodward knew his time in football was finished. Ed Woodward is the trunk of the tree, we now need to go for the roots.”
MORE ON SUPER LEAGUE OUTRAGE
Should the players be punished? Should the managers be punished? They shouldn’t be. It’s the owners.
Jamie Carragher
SunSport readers are now calling on the football authorities to throw the book at the six rebels and make them suffer.
Our poll saw 59 per cent of 6,000 voters call for clubs to be punished, a third believing they should be exempted from any sanctions and eight per cent unsure.
While the managers and players were not involved in the European Super League plans, many are calling for points deductions or even expulsion from the top flight.
Others, meanwhile, want to see long-term changes implemented to prevent anything like this being attempted again, such as fan-majority ownership like in Germany or the owners somehow forced out.
Jamie Carragher said: “The most important thing for me is getting everybody together. These are huge institutions in our game.
“This is not Liverpool, Manchester United, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs or Arsenal. This is the owners. It’s not the clubs.
“Should the players be punished? Should the managers be punished? They shouldn’t be. It’s the owners.
“Ed Woodward has moved on and I think there will be more. I think we will look back at this and realise the magnitude of what we have all done.
“We have all proved in this country, the media, the supporters and the players have been more on the front foot and that is something everybody should be proud of in taking this European Super League down.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
