Louis van Gaal says Manchester City’s financial case helped decide his Manchester United fate in 2016. He said the missed Champions League place was probably the deciding factor in his dismissal, and that it brought “all the consequences and suffering this entailed.”
United and City in 2015-16
Manchester United were dismissed at the end of the 2015-16 season after missing out on Champions League qualification. Manchester City and United both finished on 66 points, with City taking the final Champions League place on goal difference.
Van Gaal also said, “I cannot turn back history now.” It is a line that fits the wider grievance around that season, but the basic football fact stays the same. United were left out and City went through.
The punishment debate around City
The former United manager is now folding his own exit into the longer argument about City’s finances. The Premier League said the panel found City arranged sham contracts with commercial partners and used disguised funding to inflate revenues, while City were later found to have used sham contracts and agreements to inflate their books by around £900million over a nine-year period.
Steven Gerrard has also pushed for heavy punishment, saying: “I think it needs to be a transfer ban. I think it needs to be points over a period of time.” His view is harsher than Van Gaal’s, but the two stories meet in the same place, the suspicion that City’s advantage altered more than one season. United’s 2015-16 miss is still the most direct example here.
Van Gaal left with a 52 percent win rate, having won 54 of 103 games, and his final match was the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace. The argument over City’s case is still live, and Van Gaal has now made clear he sees his own Manchester United dismissal as part of it.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
