Gary Neville has accused the Premier League of acting like ‘bullies’ in the face of the potential introduction of an independent football regulator.
The Football Governance Bill introduced in March by the Conservatives and now being pushed ahead by Labour includes the establishment of an independent football regulator.
Calls for the independent regulation of football gained momentum in the wake of the Super League scandal in early 2021 and now, the government say they will ‘protect football clubs’ by ‘ensuring their financial sustainability’.
If the bill is passed through parliament, it will grant a regulator ‘backstop powers’ to intervene in football matters when required.
Neville accuses Premier League of ‘bully’ behaviour
Neville has been one of the most vocal advocates for an independent football regulator ever since the attempted Super League over three years ago.
The Premier League has been far more sceptical of the idea, with CEO Richard Masters labelling it a ‘risk’.
There have been rumours that Premier League clubs could be banned from Uefa competitions because of the organisation’s policy against state interference.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy insisted the government would not adopt a ‘heavy-handed’ approach to regulating football and dismissed the idea of English clubs being ejected from European competition as ‘ridiculous’.
Neville, meanwhile, has accused the Premier League of ‘bully’ behaviour in their battle against the introduction of a regulator.
“We have a Premier League that’s entitled, they feel entitled. I’m not going to use the word greedy, but I just have,” the former Man Utd right-back said at the Labour Party conference (via the Leicester Mercury).
“They are selfish and I can’t understand that way of thinking. It’s almost like they’re the big brother that sit there and distribute scraps of food to the little brothers round the table.
“It’s not what you do when you’re in a family. Their mindset is such of a bully. Their mindset is such that they think they can influence the regulator once the regulator’s introduced and they can get a better deal potentially the other side of the regulator. And what they’re applying is their soft power and their influence to try and create scare stories and scaremongering, like we had a couple of weeks ago.”
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