Manchester City case at odds with growing UK-UAE ties

• Club confident of proving innocence
• $33.5bn trade between countries
• Abu Dhabi ‘transformed parts of UK’

Manchester City’s reported breaching of Premier League financial rules has put renewed scrutiny on Abu Dhabi’s most prominent sporting investment in Britain, just as the UAE and UK seek to deepen economic ties.

Manchester City have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 financial rule breaches they were accused of.

The independent commission’s findings have not been published and sanctions have yet to be determined. Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who is also chief executive of Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala, said the club remains confident it can prove its innocence and that the Premier League process is ongoing.

The Premier League referred the case to an independent commission in February 2023 after an investigation into alleged breaches covering nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18.

The allegations include claims that City failed to provide accurate financial information relating to revenue, sponsorship and related-party transactions, as well as player and manager remuneration and compliance with financial rules. The league also accused the club of failing to co-operate with its investigation.

The reported finding does not represent the end of the process. City can appeal, while the commission has yet to determine any sanctions.

The potential fallout from the commission’s findings extends beyond football, said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Gulf affairs expert, particularly because of the close public association between Manchester City, their ownership and the UAE.

Manchester City are majority owned by Newton Investment and Development LLC, fully owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with a significant minority shareholding of nearly 17 percent held by US-based global technology investment company, Silver Lake.

The club was bought by Sheikh Mansour through Abu Dhabi United Group in September 2008 for £200 million ($265 million) from former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

In 2023, City won planning permission to expand and upgrade their stadium. The $384 million project to increase the size of the Etihad Stadium’s North Stand by 7,700 people, to accommodate a total of 60,000, included plans to add a 400-bed hotel and a fan zone for 3,000 supporters. It also included a new club shop, a museum, food and drink outlets, and a 4,000 square metre co-working space for local businesses.

Britain and the UAE have been seeking to deepen their economic relationship, with bilateral trade reaching about $33.5 billion in 2025. London has also said it wants to attract further Emirati investment into sectors including infrastructure, aviation, ports, defence, artificial intelligence and data centres.

“Abu Dhabi ownership of City is deeply embedded in a network of diplomatic, economic and investment relations between Britain and the Gulf state,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of AfroEurasian sport at Emlyon Business School and an AGBI columnist. “From the Abu Dhabi side, the owners won’t want to lose face or see their trophy club asset diminished in any way.”

Relations between the two countries were tested in 2024 when the UK government blocked a deal by RedBird IMI, a US investment group backed by Abu Dhabi’s International Media Investments, from acquiring the centre-right Telegraph Media Group, passing legislation that prevented foreign governments from owning British newspapers and news magazines.

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“We saw how Abu Dhabi responded with anger to the Telegraph backlash and this is bigger and potentially more damaging,” said Coates Ulrichsen.

UK trade minister Anas Sarwar, who visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE in September, said Britain should not allow individual disputes to obscure the broader relationship.

“Some of the sticky issues within football, to pretend that that’s somehow the extent or the depth of the UAE’s relationship with the UK. It’s not,” Sarwar told AGBI.

“[The UAE] have helped transform Manchester. They’ve helped transform London Gateway as another example as well as so many other parts of the UK.”

Sarwar said he intended to separate football from the wider political and economic relationship.

“If there are conclusions that require appropriate punishment or sanctions, that’s a decision for them,” he said, referring to the football authorities.

State-backed UAE investment has extended well beyond football into UK infrastructure, technology, energy and financial services. The UAE-UK sovereign investment partnership has generated more than £30 billion of investment commitments in Britain since 2021, according to UK government figures.

The reported commission finding has already generated intense international coverage before the written decision has been made public.

Coates Ulrichson said that could itself create tensions, with Abu Dhabi potentially objecting to what it sees as a “trial by media” while the formal process remains incomplete.

City have maintained their position. “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed,” the club said on Friday, adding that its position remained unchanged from its 2023 statement.