European Super League: Manchester United, Liverpool owners should go - Carragher and Neville
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Updated 21/04/2021 at 10:41 GMT
Liverpool great Jamie Carragher says he does not “see a future for the ownership of FSG at Liverpool”, while United legend Gary Neville has also called for the Glazer family to relinquish control of the club, as both hinted that owners of the six Premier League clubs who tried to join the new competition face a battle to regain trust of fans.
Liverpool and Manchester United legends Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have called for the club's owners to go
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Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher and Manchester United great Gary Neville have called for the club’s owners to sell after their attempt to join a new European Super League.
The six Premier League clubs who initially announced they signed up - nicknamed the ‘dirty dozen’ by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin - have all withdrawn from the project, 48 hours after it was confirmed.
After Inter and Atletico withdrew on Wednesday, only four clubs remain - Spanish sides Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Italian outfits Juventus, and AC Milan - though the last two are believed to be on the verge of performing a similar u-turn.
Following pressure from players, managers, fans, government and political parties, England now has no representative in the widely criticised tournament.
On Wednesday morning, Liverpool’s principal owner John W Henry took full responsibility for his club’s involvement and apologised to supporters, but Carragher believes the position of Henry’s Fenway Sports Group is already untenable.
"I actually think the situation with Liverpool's owners is that l don't see how they can continue," he told Sky Sports.
"They can't just leave the club, obviously, the business is worth a lot of money, but I don't see a future for the ownership of FSG at Liverpool on the back of this."
This will never be forgotten, I think the best thing for them would be to find a new buyer. I think it will be very difficult for them to have any sort of relationship with Liverpool supporters and the club going forward.
Neville was similarly scathing of United’s ownership structure, having changed his tone over recent days on the running of the club by the Glazer family.
Ed Woodward announced on Tuesday night that he will be stepping down as executive vice-chairman at the end of the year. A former banker at JP Morgan, which financed the European Super League project, and close ally of the Glazers, Neville said it is possible he may have been betrayed.
"We obviously don't know why the timing is now," Neville told Sky Sports.
The leeches could have thrown him under a bus, there's no doubt about that. Or it could have been that the sensible thing has happened that Ed Woodward knew it was going to get pretty hot in the kitchen for him in the next few months and he needed to get out of there.
"The fact of the matter is, not just Ed Woodward, every single executive who goes and sits at the Premier League table, every single executive who is on these UEFA or FIFA committees, they need throwing out of that club because there is no way they can turn up again and be trusted.
"Ed Woodward knew his time in football was finished and he's probably done that to probably keep away from the criticism that would have come his way in the next few months," continued Neville.
Ed Woodward is the trunk of the tree. We now need to go for the roots. The Glazers have no place in Manchester anymore.
Neville also called for moves to be made to prevent anything like the European Super League coming to fruition again.
"We have to work hard together to ensure that ownership rules in this country are changed, that we have a system whereby this cannot happen.
“Whether this is government intervention or an independent regulator. Whether it be a fan-owned club rule, whatever it is, we have to make sure that this is the catalyst for change.”
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