Gary Neville likens Premier League to ‘a bully’ in football pyramid funding talks

The Premier League has acted like a “bully” in its dealings over extra money for the football pyramid, Gary Neville has said. Talks over a new deal on television money between the Premier League and the EFL have been on hold since March, with no sign of imminent resumption.

Football’s independent regulator is very likely be given “backstop” powers to settle the dispute, with the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, stating on Monday that the legislation to bring forward the regulator would be introduced to parliament “within a matter of weeks”.

The Premier League is committed to investing £1.6bn in solidarity payments to the wider game over the three years up to the end of this season, an arrangement that will continue until any new deal supersedes it. However, Neville, a co-owner of Salford City and a former Manchester United defender, believes the top flight should be doing much more to support the sustainability of clubs outside it.

“I have no idea what they’re playing at – they look awful to me,” he said at the Labour party conference in Liverpool. “They look selfish. They look greedy. Everything you wouldn’t want to be in life, everything your parents wouldn’t want you to be.

“We’re happy to accept conditions around the money coming down, because the reality is, we want a sustainable game. I’m an owner of a football club, I want my club to be sustainable.

“[Football] is not sustainable, and we have a Premier League that are entitled. They feel entitled. They’re the big brother that sit there and distribute scraps of food to the little brothers around the table. It’s not what you do when you’re in a family.

“I know exactly what they’re doing – if they had wanted to have done a deal, they would have done a deal. But their mindset is such of a bully, their mindset is that they can influence a regulator once a regulator is introduced and get a better deal potentially the other side of the regulator coming in.”

The Premier League declined to comment, but top-flight sources have dismissed Neville’s remarks around bullying. The Premier League is continuing to discuss the football regulator with the new government and its position remains that light-touch, targeted and proportionate legislation can be made to work.