Gary Neville has slammed Liverpool and the Premier League's other European Super League mischiefs as "bullies" - and reiterated the need for independent regulation of the English game.
Liverpool were one of six Premier League clubs who conspired with their leading European counterparts to form plans for a breakaway ESL. However, just days after such plans were publicised, a Premier League-wide revolt saw all six clubs revoke their intention to join the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus in the closed-shop competition.
In the aftermath of their failed breakaway, the 'rebel six' were made to make a combined goodwill payment of £22m to the Premier League. The leniency of that punishment has come to the fore in the aftermath of the punishment handed out to Everton', who haven been docked 10 points for breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules.
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Comparing the Blues' punishment with that of Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea two-and-a-half years ago, Neville believes the Premier League is a "defunct organisation" in desperate need of an independent regulator.
"The trust and faith has gone completely," said the former Manchester United defender, speaking on the latest episode of Stick to Football on The Overlap. "The greed, I’m not going to say corruption, but the greed and selfishness is out of control - it’s lawless. The Premier League is a defunct organisation because they’ve got 20 clubs voting with self-interest and not with the greater interests of the game at heart.
"This has been coming for many, many years. The Super League clubs were punished, six of them that tried to destroy the whole of European football, they were fined £22million, three-and-a-half million quid each, which is an absolute disgrace, a scandal, the attempted murder of our game, essentially to create a franchise model in the top game in the world.
"This is happening month after month, we had another two votes yesterday whereby votes were held on whether you could loan from a multi-club system and voted on front-of shirt-sponsorship. What we’re talking about here isn’t football anymore, and I love football, but it’s starting to eat itself from the inside out.
"The reason I’ve called for an independent regulator for four or five years was because it’s the only chance we’ve got - I’m not saying it’s going to correct all this. But we need independence, transparency, real-time financial monitoring, financial rules on owners, proper sustainability rules, which is equalised across the divisions.
"I'll give you an example. There are four different sets of rules in League Two, League One, Championship, and the Premier League for sustainability.
"The Premier League is £105million over a three-year period, in League Two you have to submit a business plan at the start of each season and if you are short, depending on your revenue last year and you overspend more on players, the owner has to put it in as cash at the start of the season so you can afford to sign those players or you get stopped from signing players.
"That’s the best way to go, it’s real-time financial monitoring in League Two. So the rules across each of the four leagues is all different. It’s mad what’s going on at this moment in time."
Neville added: "It's too complex for them (Premier League), they can't control their own mob, let alone create a multi-club international new strategy, that's not going to happen.
"They're not capable of those things, the people in the Premier League haven't got the skillset to deliver this type of operation. We need to get back to basics, real-time financial monitoring in football, create what football clubs can lose each year, what football clubs can put in as owner funding and monitor it on a very strict basis, equalise the rules across the four leagues and make the consequences of not doing so consistent.
"So everyone knows the damages if you're found guilty, at the moment it's making it up as you go along. The Premier League is broken in terms of governance, the stamp down after the ESL was unbelievable. I'd be furious if I was an Everton fan, it's an absolute disgrace what you've done to my football club.
"On the other hand, Everton have done wrong and created a financial crime within the game, an irregularity, so they should be punished. What they feel they're now being is the scapegoat, the 'new Premier League', which doesn't exist really.
"The big six, they are bullies. They've done it to Everton. Would the Premier League have done this to a Manchester United, Manchester City, a Chelsea? They wouldn't probably do that."
