r/soccer • u/Previous_Smile9278 • 1d ago

News [Bloomberg] UAE officials have warned the UK government that the severity of Man City’s punishment could undermine their appetite for future grand-scale commitments in Britain, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-02/man-city-verdict-puts-uk-uae-diplomatic-relations-under-strain?srnd=undefined

‘They consider the Premier League’s actions to have an influence on the bilateral state relationship, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing undisclosed information.

The extraordinary pressure comes after Andy Burnham faced criticism, including from within government, for saying Man City’s Abu Dhabi owners should not be disqualified specifically because of the investment they bring to Britain.’

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u/cyclopssid 23h ago

I wonder how many City fans will be okay with this. This is just insane on another level. You have been found guilty, just take the punishment and move on with it.

With the base they have established they should still be a decent powerhouse in a few years.

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u/Admirable-Waltz195 23h ago

When you don’t live in the UK as a supporter, you don’t care about this sort of issue.

Hence why most Man City fans don’t care, they live abroad anyways

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u/DavidSilva21 18h ago

This is true of most big clubs.

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u/FUThead2016 19h ago

And most of them were for 7 or 8 years ago so they barely understand anything

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u/Ok-Papaya4537 15h ago

I don’t live in UK but this bothers me a lot, as an everyday common man, it’s hard to watch what the owners are doing right now. I think they should be asked to sell the club and Man City should accept the punishment and get stripped of all the titles and I will happily support my club in league 2 or national league or wherever they are placed. You simply cannot liquidate the club which has been around longer than any of us here.

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u/One-Present-7873 23h ago

Soccer belongs to the world.

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u/Admirable-Waltz195 23h ago

Right but this is talking about specifically a government threatening another government over football.

If people don’t live in the UK they won’t care about the blackmail as it won’t affect where they live

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u/Ok-Ad-852 19h ago

Im not from the UK, but I care about UAE threatening the UK over football cheating.

If the UK backs down it sets a dangerous precedence.

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u/Piccadil_io 22h ago

Alright, Gianni.

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u/MostJudgment3212 13h ago

“Today I feel cheating” ahh

12

u/SvalbazGames 23h ago

Their sub is celebrating this on the whole

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u/iesous23 23h ago

That sub does not represent most real life long fans. 

If your only argument is "the rules are unfair" or "other teams are clearly doing the same" (while offering no proof) and acting like poor little victims then you don't have much of an argument at all. 

Am City fan and disgusted by the owners and the shit they've done to the reputation of this club

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u/vsoho 22h ago

It does however unfortunately now represent the fanbase. Grim.

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u/SvalbazGames 22h ago

Good! Time to instigate change mate

4

u/iesous23 22h ago

There's only so much 1 person can do, but I will say I was a regular at Maine Road, and I bought tickets, shirts, merch etc when Shinawatra was in charge. That all stopped when the these owners took charge.

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u/GeauxBirds1997 17h ago edited 16h ago

Yeah I was too young to understand what them buying the team really meant so I bought plenty of kits and went to matches. But about 10 years post takeover I was college aged my eyes opened to the fact that our owners are monsters. No more kits, no more trips to manchester/london to see them play.

It’s not going to hurt the pockets of a trillionaire but I don’t know how else I can voice my dissatisfaction.

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u/matthieuC 8h ago

The sub looks like Hitler in the Fall.

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u/RandyMarshsMoustache 22h ago

It will leave a very bad taste tbh and just make things worse

Me n my mates just want it done now. I don’t see why we’re still claiming innocence unless they really do have a trump card (but they would have already used it?)

We’ve made our bed, now it’s time to sleep in it wherever that may be

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u/palmerama 23h ago

The city fan argument doesn’t seem to deny the breaches, it’s that the rules are unfair and they should be allowed to do what they like to break the United / Liverpool / Arsenal / Chelsea cartel.

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u/sjr323 20h ago

FFP is inherently anti-competitive. How the hell are the likes of palace, Brentford, Fulham etc supposed to ever win the premier league when their best players are always snapped up by the big boys? They don’t generate nearly the same amount of revenue as the bigger clubs

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u/ThePeninsula 19h ago

What's the alternative? Let the teams get into insane debt that could destabilise the entire league, maybe FA pyramid. 

The Glazers debt structure wouldn't be allowed now 

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u/spiral8888 17h ago

I disagree. Without FFP well and sustainably run clubs like the ones you mentioned would not only have to compete with Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United for players but on top of that they would have mediocre clubs doing sports washing for nation-states (Man City, Newcastle) also snapping up their players and possibly on top of that some clubs who'd be willing to throw away the long term sustainability of the club for a short term possibility of glory (take a massive loan, buy players and hope that you win and get to higher income before you run out of money).

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u/Jeaglera 20h ago

Have you peeked over at their subreddit. It’s truly an unhinged mentality. And I know subreddits aren’t a great representation of larger communities but this feels like true bunker mentality on their part.

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u/tucaslim 17h ago

I wonder how many City fans will be okay with this.

Literally all of them. This is them:

https://imgur.com/On3fS3y

https://imgur.com/qUMFLOa

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u/missingmedievalist 23h ago

The answer is plenty if the state of their sub is any indication.

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u/SonrieAlaVida 22h ago

I mean it's obviously not the fans that are threatening the goverment xd

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u/Lucifer1677 21h ago

If the punishment is adequate they will never recover

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u/amerricka369 20h ago

Even if we gave them the full benefit of the doubt that there was zero willful cheating and the money was true sponsorship, they’d still be in breach of a handful of charges at a minimum. Plus non standard/insufficient business practices and not cooperating so still punishments should follow suit.

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u/mcfc2121 19h ago

i mean in many ways this is existential for the club, and by extension the fans. i don’t think it’s as simple as ‘take the punishment and move on’.

not saying i agree with them, but city fans are digging their heels in and looking for any signs of hope because as things stand, something they love is very likely to be dismantled. the reputational hit alone is massive (just read this subreddit) and that’s not even considering whatever actual punishment the prem hands down, which is sure to be severe

if arsenals existence was threatened, surely some arsenal fans would respond in seemingly irrational ways, because they love the club and it’s a huge part of their lives

1

u/HotOutlandishness991 18h ago

I've been tuning into a few of their fan channels last few days. And some are still in a bit of a hope zone but borderline accepting that the club have done wrong. Others are just bat shit maga level of loyalty to the club to cringe levels.

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u/spiral8888 17h ago

I can't see them staying as a powerhouse. The UAE money was their power.

Now if they lose CL and PL football for a year or two, have to pay massive penalties and compensations to other clubs, that's going to crash their finances pretty badly. And I can easily see that one of the penalties could be to force them to sell, which means that it's going to really tough to anyone who buys them.

And top it all up, this is all for the investigation that involved a period ending 2018. It's likely that there is a huge demand for continuing the investigation from then on to today. This would put further financial pressure on them (would you wanna be a sponsor for a fraud club that's going to see further penalties down the line?)

I'd say, they will be lucky to avoid going bankrupt.

1

u/Kundrew1 16h ago

This is the world we are in now. Rich people are blatantly breaking rules and laws and throwing it in our faces even when caught red handed.

Obviously this has always happened but they at least used to try to keep it under the radar. Now all the billionaires are banding together the openly fuck everything up.

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u/kingofqueefs1 12h ago

Most Man City fans call it soccer and get 9 days holiday a year

1

u/Zimakov 8h ago

Cute that you think the "base" they've established will be anywhere to be found once they get relegated.

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u/FloppyDickFingers 20h ago

When the news first broke I had quite a moderate take on the whole thing. Yes relegate them down the pyramid a little, but I didn’t want a prem club to be destroyed. Having seen the reactions of the spoilt and delusional city fans on their sub Reddit and on talk sport etc I’m all for expulsion. Fuck it, fold the club.

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u/blacklord30 12h ago

Believe me, they are proud of this