Why Gary Neville demanded the FA deduct points from multiple top Premier League clubs in 2021
19/02/2025 14:00
Gary Neville is arguably the most opinionated pundit in football at the moment.
The Manchester United legend often delivers strong views on the biggest topics in football, such as the current protests against Daniel Levy at Tottenham, the bizarre recruitment policy at Chelsea under Todd Boehly and the 115 charges faced by Manchester City.
The 50-year-old typically speaks with passion and a vast knowledge on these stories.
However, Gary Neville has seldom been more passionate – and furious – about a topic as he was amid the European Super League debacle back in 2021, when he called on Arsenal and Liverpool to be deducted points in the Premier League along with the aforementioned four clubs.
What Gary Neville said about the European Super League back in 2021
Back in April 2021, the traditional Big Six in the Premier League shocked the entire nation when agreeing to join a new European Super League – along with AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid.
Unsurprisingly, Neville was at the heart of the discussion, and told Sky Sports: “You know what the motivation is. It’s 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 money off them!
“Seriously, you have got to stamp on this. It’s criminal. It is a criminal act against football fans in this country. Make no mistake about it. This is the biggest sport in the world. This is the biggest sport in this country, and it’s a criminal act against the fans, simple as that.
“Deduct points, deduct them money, and punish them.
“They’re bottle merchants. You never hear from the owners of these clubs. They’ve got no voice. They’ll probably hide in a few weeks and say it had 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, clubs on the edge in League One and League Two, and these lot are having Zoom calls about breaking away and basically creating more greed? Joke.”
🗣 "It's a criminal act against football fans in this country." 🤬@GNev2 is furious with the big six clubs signing up to the 'European Super League' pic.twitter.com/eXZDyzovJg
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) April 18, 2021
All six Premier League clubs eventually decided against joining the European Super League after the immense backlash – even from the UK Government.
What was the European Super League?
In truth, people probably would have grown bored of the European Super League very quickly had it actually happened.
The proposal was for a 20-team league involving the same 15 clubs every season, with the other five sides qualifying annually through their domestic divisions.
Ultimately, FIFA even stated they would not recognise such a competition, and could even ban players involved from competing at the World Cup – so it came as no surprise to see the ambitious project collapse as quickly as it did.
