Ex-Man Utd manager Louis van Gaal told to ‘sue Man City into oblivion’ for causing Old Trafford sack | OneFootball

Former Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has been told to “sue” Manchester City “into oblivion” after the guilty FFP verdict.

Man City face severe sanctions after the Premier League confirmed that the club have been found guilty of breaching its FFP rules between 2009 and 2018, with almost all of the charges going against Enzo Maresca’s side.

Despite this, Man City continue to insist on their innocence and they will appeal the initial verdict, but their possible sanctions range from a fine to being stripped of their Premier League titles if they are unsuccessful.

A guilty verdict also opens a can of worms regarding Maresca‘s team potentially being sued by rival clubs and individuals, and journalist Sjoerd Mossou has argued that ex-Man Utd boss Van Gaal should sue City after they arguably caused his sacking in 2016.

“I wonder if Louis van Gaal has already called his lawyer?” Mossou wrote in Algemeen Dagblad.

“It has been ten years since he was fired by Manchester United, shortly after the club finished fifth in the league – missing out on a Champions League place on goal difference, of all things.

“Louis did win the FA Cup that season, but he narrowly missed the target and had to leave.

“The team that finished fourth that year. Indeed, you guessed it: Manchester City. The club that was definitively exposed this week as the biggest cheat in football history, following fraud and deception on a staggering scale.

“The entire English football world has turned against the club. But let us not forget the unforeseen individual victims in all this: Van Gaal, too, deserves vindication. Sue them into oblivion, Louis.”

“The bill could be hundreds of millions…”

It would likely be a bit of a stretch for Van Gaal to sue Man City, but football finance expert Kieran Maguire has said that City face paying out “hundreds of millions” to rival clubs.

“Overall, the bill could be hundreds of millions if you look at the number of clubs involved,” Maguire told The i Paper.

“You would calculate the size of the claim by looking at the rewards of qualifying for the Champions League and the potential prize money. For winning the Champions League it is €150m. It’s €40m for the Europa League, so you would look at the amount potentially lost by competing in one competition rather than the other.

“Some clubs who finished fifth will be looking at a minimum of €50m claim for loss of prize money.

“Then you could legitimately say that instead of hosting Bayern Munich or Real Madrid on a Wednesday night, we ended up hosting the second-best team in Denmark on a Thursday night, so our gate receipts were down. Bonuses from sponsors are down too. All of that goes into the claims.

“I think individual clubs’ claims could exceed the amount Burnley settled for.”