UAE threat to Britain over Man City case: Diplomatic ties are ‘under significant strain’… with billions of investment at stake

The outcome of the Premier League’s probe into Manchester City is understood to have put ‘significant strain’ on the diplomatic relationship between the UK and the United Arab Emirates, with billions of pounds of investment at stake.

Bloomberg UK reports that ‘frustration on both sides’ has escalated due to the fallout surrounding the case. City are owned by a private company run by Sheikh Mansour, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family and the vice president of the UAE.

In a bombshell judgment, City were found guilty of the vast majority of the 115 charges levelled against them by the Premier League, with the League saying this week that ‘sham’ sponsorship deals had been inflated by around £900million.

City today confirmed they have appealed against the verdict – with potential punishments if they do not succeed including a points deduction, heavy fines or even expulsion from the Premier League.

The Premier League’s chief executive Richard Masters stated that the club had ‘systematically broken’ the rules for nearly a decade and called the decision by the Independent Commission who heard the case ‘the most significant in Premier League history’. 

As Daily Mail Sport reported on Thursday, it is understood that City argue that the disputed money came from the Abu Dhabi government-owned sponsors, rather than the club’s owners – and was therefore not against the Premier League rules.

City were proved over their dealings between 2011 and 2018, when they won three league titles

But, according to Bloomberg, Emirati officials have warned the UK government that the severity of the ruling could undermine their appetite for future grand-scale UK commitments. They add that UK government officials are equally frustrated by the conduct of some of their UAE counterparts with regard to the City controversy.

Over recent years the UAE has spent more than £30billion in major UK sectors, including defense, life sciences and technology. An investment summit is pencilled in for this month. Mubadala Investment Company, one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds, is owned by Mansour and its chief executive is City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham this week hailed the impact of City’s owners and thanked them for their wider investment in Manchester.

‘I would be really concerned to lose them,’ said Burnham. ‘They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester.’

‘I can’t intervene more in the process. It would be wrong for me to do that. It would be wrong, I think, to jump to a conclusion before having really studied all of the detail, but obviously it’s ongoing, and because it’s still contested by Manchester City, then I think it’s right that I don’t say much more.’

‘I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn’t just put into the Etihad (Stadium) and the campus around it but also into the city.’

On Thursday, Downing Street sought to clarify his comments. ‘As the Prime Minister made clear, the initial judgement is serious and there can’t be any suggestion that anyone is above the rules,’ a spokesperson said. 

‘He also stressed that it is an ongoing independent process. It is essential that it is allowed to run its course and the outcome respected. If wrongdoing is established, those responsible should face the appropriate consequences.’