Roy Keane has delivered a fierce reaction to Manchester City’s financial breaches verdict, saying he would throw his medals away if he had won them while playing for the club.
The former Manchester United captain was responding to the Premier League ruling that found City guilty of breaching more than 100 financial regulations during a period stretching from 2009 to 2018.
The Premier League confirmed on Tuesday that City had been found guilty of inflating their commercial revenue by £830 million ($1.08 billion) during the period under investigation.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the club had “systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade.”
Keane, who won numerous major honours during his Manchester United career, said he would not want to keep any medals won during the period if he were a Manchester City player.
“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. “They won it on the pitch because cheating was going on.
“They knew it would hurt a lot of people, but they’ve still done it.”
The comments add another layer to the growing debate surrounding the sporting impact of the Premier League’s ruling.
Manchester City have strongly rejected the findings and said they were “surprised” by the verdict. The club has also confirmed that it intends to appeal the decision, with Friday, October 2 set as the deadline.
During the period covered by the case, City established themselves as one of English football’s dominant forces.
The club won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and three League Cups between 2009 and 2018, a run that helped transform City into a major force domestically.
The independent ruling has now raised questions about how those achievements should be viewed, with former players and pundits offering differing reactions to the findings.
City chief executive Ferran Soriano has maintained the club’s position that it did nothing wrong.
In a video message to staff, Soriano described the Premier League’s case as a “Premier League conspiracy theory.”
“This has gone on for so long that it’s important to remind ourselves that the whole Premier League case against us is based on a single false accusation; that the owner’s personal money was somehow and secretly put into the club via some sponsors from Abu Dhabi,” he said.
City’s appeal means the latest ruling does not represent the final stage of the dispute. The club is expected to challenge the findings through the available process while continuing to deny wrongdoing.
For Keane, however, the issue goes beyond the legal arguments and directly into the sporting legacy of the players who collected trophies during the period under investigation.
His comments are likely to fuel an already intense debate over City’s titles, medals and achievements, as the club prepares for another crucial stage in its long-running financial case with the Premier League.
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