Ipswich Town manager Gary O'Neil has been quizzed on Man City being found guilty of financial doping. (Image: Ross Halls)
Ipswich Town manager Gary O'Neil has been quizzed on Man City being found guilty of financial doping. (Image: Ross Halls)
Ipswich Town manager Gary O'Neil says it would be crazy of him to give an opinion on the news that Manchester City have been found guilty of the majority of 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League.
An independent commission has ruled that the Abu Dhabi owned club breached the league's financial regulations over a nine year period between 2009/10 and 2017/18.
It is not yet clear when or how big the punishment handed out will be, while City believe they will win their appeal against the verdict.
Given a potential relegation-sealing points deduction could be on the cards, newly-promoted Ipswich are among the clubs who could benefit. However, O'Neil, who takes his team to the Etihad next weekend, refused to comment on the situation at this afternoon's press conference.
Asked what he had to say on world football's biggest story, the Blues boss said: "Nothing really. You guys probably know me well enough already to know that I've spent the last three weeks trying to make sure that we're ready for Fulham.
"I've not paid too much attention to it. It's not something that I'm involved in or want to be involved in. It's up to the powers that be to come to the right conclusions.
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"We have an excellent five-game block here to attack and see what we can put on the table. So I'm not going to be distracted and I've not even given it a second's thought, to be honest."
O'Neil played in the Premier League player for West Ham and Norwich during the period which City have been found guilty of financially doping.
"Did I really?" he laughed, when pointed out that fact. "It feels longer ago than that. Unfortunately, I was never in direct competition with Manchester City.
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"Honestly, I have no feelings. I don't know anything about it. It would be crazy of me to try and give you an opinion on something that I know absolutely nothing about.
"I can guarantee I know less about it than you guys. So I'd be better off asking you guys what you think about it, probably."
He added: "Whenever I came up against them you just felt they had loads of good players. That was also the case when we played Alex Ferguson's Man Utd, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, (Jose) Mourinho's Chelsea. They all had a lot of good players.
"I'm sure it will all get sorted. And I'm sure we'll all move on. As I say, my focus is tomorrow and can we get to nine points."