Neville DEFENDS City and insists they had no chance of catching Utd without cash

Gary Neville has defended Manchester City after they were banned from the Champions League for two seasons for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.

Prior to Manchester United's clash with Chelsea on Monday night, Neville launched a scathing attack on FFP and said it was wrong to limit the spending power of clubs.

Neville also strongly disagreed with fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, who applauded Uefa and claimed City have been rightly punished.

'It was interesting listening to judge Carragher,' he told Sky Sports. 'I’ve had a long held view on FFP, people would say it’s because i’m the owner of Salford, but the idea that city are not able to invest the money of the ownership, I disagree, I've thought FFP is the wrong way to apply.

'FFP was brought in to stop clubs going bust, but there are different ways of doing that. If owners sign up to contracts they should have the money in place to fulfil those contracts, I think City's owners have got that.

We would never see the emergence of these clubs below United, Liverpool, Arsenal who have the history. We’re saying FFP stifles investment into Blackburns and clubs like that.'

Neville also suggested an alternative format of ownership and investment that would enable clubs to spend while also ensuring owners don't make big financial commitments that they can't afford to sustain in the long term.

We should create a status quo almost like a franchise,' he added. 'I think the top clubs in Europe, like United, Barcelona, they would take football towards a franchise type model. There are negatives where owners have invested into clubs and not adhered to their commitments, that’s got to stop.

'I think City will beat Uefa. I've got no faith in them whatsoever, they’re a hopeless organisation which applies erratic decisions to different things, it’ll get stuck in the courts but I think City will win in the end.'