Former Manchester City defender Kyle Walker has revealed he might have to undergo tattoo removal if his former club gets stripped of their Premier League titles following financial fair play rulings.
Walker Responds to Potential Title Stripping
During the recent international break, it was announced that Manchester City were found guilty of 114 out of 115 charges for allegedly breaching Premier League financial rules. While the club has appealed the decision and consistently denied any wrongdoing, discussions persist regarding potential penalties, which could range from points deductions and title stripping to expulsion from the league.
Walker, who currently plays for Burnley in the Championship, was an integral part of Pep Guardiola’s squad that secured four consecutive Premier League titles. Speaking in an interview with talkSPORT, Walker noted, “[I’ve got] ‘four in a row’ tattooed.” When asked if he would seek to remove the ink should the club lose those titles, Walker stated, “Well I’m probably going to have to do that bit! I’ll try and keep it on, but hopefully we don’t get things taken away.”
Addressing the ongoing situation surrounding his former teammates, Walker said, “It’s the big elephant in the room we’re probably all going to be asked when doing interviews or whatever. It doesn’t look great.” He added, “Let’s not hide from the fact they’ve been found guilty but they’re going through an appeal. As a player all I can say is all we did is go out and play our best as a team and I’ll defend the players for the rest of my life, because I feel what we did and achieved in that time was incredible and probably won’t be done ever again. But from the outside looking in, it doesn’t look great and we have to address that.”
Steven Gerrard’s View on Penalties
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard shared his perspective on the situation, suggesting that a “multi-year punishment” would be the most suitable sanction for the club rather than relegation to the EFL.
Speaking on The Overlap, Gerrard explained his stance on how authorities should handle the fallout. “In terms of how I feel, I potentially could be affected if you like, I wouldn’t want individual players to give stuff back, that wouldn’t be right. But the club, they have to be stripped…” Gerrard said.
Gerrard also highlighted concerns about relegating the club to the lower tier. “There needs to be an example set, historically whether that’s a star throughout all the years of their achievements, because then it doesn’t matter whether the titles are stripped or not, as soon as that star is there, then everyone knows that [success] happened because of what we all know happened,” Gerrard stated.
He concluded regarding relegation, “And then there needs to be a punishment moving forward, I don’t know what the right one is… I don’t think its fair on the Championship if they go down, because they will be one of the three teams that come up, so that takes a slot away from the Championship so it’s not fair on the EFL. Or the teams playing against City week in, week out. I think it’s more moving forward in the Premier League, to punish them over a period of time, multi-year punishment, that would be my opinion, I’m not saying that’s the right opinion but that’s just how I feel.”
