Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has said he would throw his “medals in the bin” if he were a Manchester City player after the club was found guilty of all charges related to breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.
On Tuesday, the Premier League confirmed the Etihad club had been found guilty of flouting its rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018 by creating “sham” contracts with commercial partners to secretly funnel more than £830m into their football operations.
City, who continue to deny any wrongdoing, won eight trophies, including three Premier League titles, during that period.
Keane said the achievements of City’s players had become redundant because of the “cheating” that took place during that time.
“If I was a player, I’d be 100% sticking those medals in the bin. Of course you would, it’s cheating,” Keane told ITV Sport ahead of England’s match against the Czech Republic.
“They won it on the pitch because cheating was going on.”
And on the club he added: “They knew it would hurt a lot of people, but they’ve still done it.”
Keane’s former United team-mate, Wayne Rooney, however, says his former club do not deserve to be awarded Premier League titles if their city rivals are stripped of them as punishment.
Sanctions are yet to be announced and City plan to appeal against the decision.
One possible punishment could be the club being stripped of top-flight titles. They have won the Premier League eight times since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover in 2009, three of which were in the period when they were accused of breaking financial rules.
Rooney was part of the United side that finished runners-up to City in 2011-2012 but does not want to be awarded the title retrospectively.
Speaking on the Stick to United podcast,, external he said: “I wouldn’t feel comfortable about accepting another Premier League medal if I’m being honest, because I don’t think we deserve it. We didn’t do enough that season to win the league.
“I’m thinking as their players, they’re there doing everything they can to win the Premier League title and in their minds they’ve done it.
“And, if those players have got no understanding of what’s going on above them, then if that happened to me – if all of a sudden Manchester United have been doing the same and I’m getting my Premier League medals taken away from me – I’d be absolutely devastated.
“They might take them away but I wouldn’t want it because I don’t feel as a team we deserved it that year because we obviously didn’t finish first.”