Former Manchester United and England stalwart Gary Neville has welcomed plans for an independent regulator of football and said it is time for the Premier League to step aside in the running of the game.
The former player, turned TV pundit, has long campaigned for the introduction of an independent regulator in English football.
And today he praised Tracey Crouch MP, who has completed an exhaustive review of the English game, and concluded a new regulator with extensive powers is required, to defend against reckless owners, safeguard the future of clubs and ensure a fairer distribution of wealth.
Gary Neville has campaigned for the reform football governance in England for a long time
'Joel Glazer, Roman Abramovich, Stan Kroenke, Sheikh Mansour, John W Henry, Daniel Levy, should not be in charge of English football, said Neville, speaking at a press conference , alongside former FA chairman David Bernstein, ex-FA executive director David Davies,
'Does anybody in this country think those six people should have the biggest influence on the running of English football? Absolutely not.
'They are massive players in the game. They are at the heart of the quality we see every single week bit the Premier League can’t even control the Premier League clubs at this moment.
'The six have got real frustrations with the 14, the 14 have got real frustrations with the six. They are stuck internally.
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'The Premier League clubs have schemed against each other and behind each others’ backs behind the executive’s back on Project Big Picture and the European Super League, so they have proven in abundance they are incapable of managing the wide interests of football.'
The former England international is part of a distinguished group, alongside Bernstein and Davies, that has pushed proposals for reform, under the banner, 'Saving Our Beautiful Game - A Manifesto for Change'.
Former FA chairman David Bernstein has delivered a grim assessment of how football is run
Neville and his partners put the case to around 50 Parliamentarians via a Zoom a year ago this week.
They also gave evidence to Tracey Crouch’s review of football, and most of the objectives they set out in their manifesto have been included in some form in her report, which was published last night.
In addition Neville and his mother also gave emotive evidence about the demise of their hometown club, Bury, which went out of business and out of the Football League in 2019.
Neville predicted other clubs would go the same way if action is not taken now.
'I was sat on League Two calls [as an owner of Salford City] where there were clubs asking for financial rescue packages for 10 months and they were not forthcoming and it made me incredibly angry. The EFL have tried for a two or three year period now to get a fairer deal from the Premier League and it has not been able to get one.
'The clubs have recognised the Premier League is not forthcoming in a fairer distribution of money.
Neville has sat on League Two calls as the owner of Salford City and heard club's desperation
'The Premier League has proven over the last two years it cannot be responsible for the management of English football.
'English football is so important to tens of millions of people up and down the country and it cannot be in the hands of those six owners or those other 14 owners who change every three or four years.'
But Neville stressed that the future of football did not only depend on more money flowing down the pyramid, it will also require tough new financial controls at every level of the game to ensure clubs are properly run. And a regulator will be best placed to implement those rules, and ensure better governance in clubs.
Bury went out of business in 2019 after overspending to gain promotion to League One
Neville and his mum gave evidence the Crouch Review about the demise of Bury, their hometown club
The Government has wasted no time in confirming its intention to create a new regulator for football, after the Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries tweeted her support after just 12 hours of the Crouch report being published.
Ms Dorries took to social media this morning to endorse the key recommendation in a review of the English game, which was to put in place a regulator.
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