Gareth Barry played for Man City through the era at the centre of the Premier League’s case, and he has said it plainly: if the club are proven to have broken the rules, they have to get punished.
The former midfielder made 175 appearances for City after signing from Aston Villa for £12m in 2009, staying until 2014. That puts him squarely inside the nine seasons, from 2009-10 to 2017-18, covered by last month’s ruling.
An independent commission found City guilty on 114 of the 115 financial charges, ruling that they orchestrated “sham” arrangements over nearly a decade and obstructed the Premier League’s investigation. City deny the findings and have lodged a formal appeal, which is still ongoing.
What Gareth Barry said about the Man City charges
Speaking on All Out Football’s In The Mixer, Barry did not try to dodge the question. “If the club have broken rules, then they have to get punished. It’s natural, isn’t it? The football world can’t work properly if rules are in place and they’re getting broken,” he said.
“Listen, this is the financial side of it (football). Other teams we’ve seen in other countries that broke rules… You’re going to get punished. So the club possibly are going to get punished at some point.”
He also spoke for a lot of City people when he added that the wait is its own problem: “But I think as ex-players and especially as fans, you want it done quicker rather than later. It’s just an awkward situation for everyone now, isn’t it?”
Could Gareth Barry lose his Man City medals?
That is the awkward bit for him personally. Possible penalties run from severe points deductions and fines to the unprecedented step of retrospectively stripping titles if the appeal fails, and Barry won the 2011 FA Cup and the 2011-12 Premier League at City.
Asked how he looks back on that period now, he said: “I’d say it’s more of a sad feeling, probably for the fans. I mean the moments [I had at City], they’ve already happened.”
“These are the sort of things that are not going to be ever taken away. They happened 12, 13 years ago. These things happened when I joined the club, 2009, even earlier than that.”
‘People calling them cheats’: Barry’s sympathy for City fans
The part that will land hardest in the Etihad stands came next. “So I feel sorry for the fans, really. They’re going to the games, getting songs sung about them and people calling them cheats. Players, fans, staff, there are decisions that you’re not in control of. You don’t know what’s going on,” Barry said.
The verdict keeps following the club around in other ways too. We covered how a Norwegian broadcaster walked away from an Erling Haaland interview over banned questions on it, and Barcelona are said to be waiting on a pre-agreed City wonderkid deal because of it.
Verdict: Barry’s Man City charges view is the honest one
Plenty of former players would have swerved this, or simply backed the club. Barry did neither. He made clear the “if” still matters, with an appeal running, and he did not pretend to know what went on above the dressing room.
That, more than the headline line, is what makes it worth hearing. Those who played in that era have to live with it too, and Barry’s answer is that the medals stay in the memory whatever the ruling says, while the fans take the songs every other weekend. On that, he has a point.
