MANCHESTER UNITED legend Gary Neville branded the club’s owners ‘scavengers’ and called on all of football to unite to kick them out amid the Euro Super League breakaway.
United, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are all involved in the plot, which has been blasted by Neville as ‘criminal’.
Among the remaining 12 ‘founder members’, Spain would supply Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona as well as Juventus, Inter and AC Milan from Italy.
The Glazer family, who own United, released a statement last night that included quotes from Joel Glazer declaring their intention to breakaway and join the controversial new competition.
The football world was outraged when the news was confirmed on Sunday, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowing to do everything in his power to stop it.
Prince William has also blasted the idea for the damage it would cause to the entire football community.
The Duke of Cambridge, who is also President of the Football Association, said that he shared the same concerns of fans about the new league.
And now Neville followed up his initial angry outburst from yesterday on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.
He said: “I feel complicit. I’ve stayed pretty quiet on the Glazer family over the years because I thought when the club were taken over as a PLC that you knew it could be bought and it was out of the control of players and fans.
“I believe in a free market, generally in life, and I’ve always thought what is the answer to the Glazers, who takes them out? Russia, China, state money, for the two or three billion it would need.
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“And I’ve stayed quiet on the basis that it’s still Manchester United, I can still go watch the lads play, I can be happy and I can be sad.
“I’m still watching football in this country and if they take dividends out then I can live with that slightly, but what I can’t live with is attacking every single football fan in this country.
“They have stepped over the mark – they are scavengers and they need booting out of this football club and country.
“We have got to come together now and it might be too late. There are people at Manchester United, fans who were arguing 15 years ago that it was too late, it’s never too late.
“We have got to stop this because they are creating a monopoly – a closed shop. A tournament you are guaranteed to be in it.”
He added: “When I woke up and saw the statement with Joel Glazer’s name on it, I thought this is a problem, a big problem – he doesn’t put his name on anything that man.
“He’s intelligent, knows what he wants and has parked his weasels. I thought he’s serious and he’s not backing down.
“Once he puts his name on it he is going to try and force this through. They’ve been through hell at Manchester United during the early years. They withstood it and stared it out, they don’t care.
“When I saw his name on it I was really worried, but I’m infused by the government, royalty, all of football, the fans… but if they push this through, and these owners have pushed difficult things through in the past for these clubs, it’s steel like.
“It will change football in this country forever and we now have to organise. It’s difficult not to get emotional and feel sick but you’ve got to write to your MPs, your local football clubs – everybody has got to come behind this.
“Pundits for BBC, ITV, BT Sport, forget allegiances and who you support, we have got to come together and stop this proposal.
“This is an attack on everything that has been important in this country that football has helped – the last ten months more than ever in a pandemic keeping people going – and they are trying to take it away from us.”
Fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher also tore into his own club Liverpool’s owners.
He said: “This ownership bought the club on the back of other American owners running the club badly and the fans got them out and they got the club for a steal.
“It’s now worth six or seven times more – they’ve made their money. They’ve won the lottery with Liverpool.
“These clubs think it’s a done deal but I don’t think it is. I think supporters up-and-down the country can stop it. I think at the forefront of that will be Liverpool because I’ve seen it before.
“We have tribalism and rivalry in this country and that’s what we love. Football fans, get together, all of us, and stop this because it can be stopped – I’m convinced. This can not be allowed to happen.”
The proposal has sparked mass protests – with Leeds’ players opting to wear shirts condemning the league ahead of their clash with the Merseysiders.
During their warm-up, Marcelo’s Bielsa’s men wore shirts that read on the front: “Champions League EARN IT.”
On the back, it read: “Football is for the fans.”
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And Jurgen Klopp was quick to slam the players after getting a glimpse of their pre-match attire.
In his pre-match interview, the German told Sky Sports: “I heard there are warm-up shirts, we will not wear them, because we cannot.
“But if somebody thinks they have to remind us to ‘earn it’ to go to the Champions League, that’s a real joke and it makes me angry.
“If it was a Leeds idea, thank you very much, nobody has to remind us.”
News of the ESL was dropped on footy fans late on Sunday night.
Klopp, who in 2019 revealed he’s firmly against the concept, was in dark over the club’s plans and found out at the same time at Reds fans.
He said: “My opinion hasn’t changed.
“I heard about it for the first time yesterday while we were trying to prepare for a very difficult game against Leeds United.
“We got some information but not a lot to be honest. I
“t’s a tough one, people are not happy with it and I understand that but I can’t say a lot more because we were not involved in any processes – not the players, not me, we didn’t know about it.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
