Roy Keane Accuses Manchester City of Cheating: “I’d Throw Those Medals in the Bin”

Roy Keane says he would throw his Manchester City medals "in the bin" if he were a player at the club, after the Premier League found City guilty of breaking more than 100 financial rules.

The league confirmed on Tuesday that City inflated their commercial revenue by £830 million ($1.08 billion) between 2009 and 2018. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the club had "systematically broke Premier League rules for nearly a decade."

Keane, a former Manchester United captain, made his views clear when he spoke to ITV Sport. "If I was a player, I'd be 100% sticking those medals in the bin. Of course you would, it's cheating," he said. "They won it on the pitch because cheating was going on."

He also felt the club knew the damage it would cause. "They knew it would hurt a lot of people, but they've still done it," Keane said.

City deny any wrongdoing and said they were "surprised" by the ruling. They have until Friday, October 2 to appeal. In that nine-year stretch, the club won three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and three League Cup trophies.

City chief executive Ferran Soriano also hit back in a video message to staff, calling the outcome the result of 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.