Emirati officials have warned the UK government that the severity of any punishment imposed on Manchester City will affect relations between the two countries and the United Arab Emirates' willingness to commit further investment to Britain, according to reports published by Bloomberg and The Telegraph. Neither outlet named the officials, both attributing the warning to unidentified sources, and neither attached a figure to it.
The reports come days after an independent commission found the Abu Dhabi-owned club guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League's financial rules over nine seasons, a verdict the league confirmed on 29 September. No sanction has yet been set, and the club lodged its appeal on 1 October.
Bloomberg reported that Emirati officials had said "the Premier League's actions" would "have an influence on the bilateral state relationship". In its own summary of the story, Bloomberg said UAE officials had warned the UK government that the severity of the club's punishment "could undermine their appetite for future grand-scale commitments in Britain, according to people familiar with the matter".
The Telegraph reported separately that the UAE is threatening to withdraw billions of pounds of private investment the government has been seeking for a hi-tech corridor between Oxford and Cambridge. The money at issue in both accounts is prospective rather than committed.
Bloomberg also disclosed that Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Manchester City's chairman and the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company, met the Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, in Downing Street on 14 September, in his Mubadala capacity. That was 11 days before The Athletic first reported the commission's findings and a fortnight before the league confirmed them.
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade said the two men did not discuss Manchester City, and that the meeting covered trade, defence and security.
In its statement confirming the verdict, the Premier League said the club was guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of its financial rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18, and guilty of the majority of charges relating to its failure to co-operate with the league's investigation. The league said the commission found all 80 financial charges and 34 of the 35 co-operation charges proven, a total of 114 of 115.
The commission found that the club arranged "sham" contracts with commercial partners, and relied on "sham" agreements with others, to inflate revenues and reduce costs by a combined total of more than £900m over the period.
Richard Masters, the Premier League's chief executive, said: "This disciplinary case, and this decision, are the most significant in Premier League history." He added: "There are elements of the case that remain to be decided, including, importantly, what sanction must follow for these breaches."
Reported options range from a fine to a points deduction or expulsion from the competition. Manchester City said it was "disappointed and surprised" by the verdict and denies wrongdoing.
The government's handling of the case was already under scrutiny before the Bloomberg and Telegraph reports. The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, told the BBC on 30 September that he would be "really concerned" if the club's owners sold up, praising their investment in Manchester, where he served as mayor from 2017 until he stood down in June, a month before taking office. After criticism of those remarks, Downing Street said the club was not "above the rules".
That statement appeared to be a response to the Prime Minister's own comments rather than to the reported Emirati warning.
The chair of the Independent Football Regulator, David Kogan, has said the ruling "raises serious issues", noting the regulator's power to assess the suitability of owners and executives once the proceedings conclude.
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