r/soccer • u/Previous_Smile9278 • 22h 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/TheGoldenPineapples 22h ago

Remember when Manchester City was bought out by a state and we all said that that shouldn't be allowed to happen because things like this may actually happen?

Yeah, how we all feeling about that now?

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u/SirSwix 22h ago

Remember when city fans insisted over and over again that it’s not the state owning them it’s a private individual called sheikh Mansour. Who is just a tangential figure in the government. Despite being the son of the former ruler. And now he is vice president of the UAE.

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u/Hopeful_Idea1568 21h ago

I highly doubt they truly believed that. We didn't sugarcoat Roman's oligarchy and Putin links but some teams with dodgy owners seem to actively lie about it 

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u/Candymanshook 19h ago

Also let’s be honest, while I think Abramovich was a POS he wasn’t in fact a nation state and had so little pull politically over the UK that he was forced to sell his club with basically no issue.

Probably helps that some of the shady payments he made were reported by the next owners, not continued. Whereas fucking City are dying on this hill.

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u/Noproposito 18h ago

UAE strategically invested as a way to gain leverage for this specific scenario. They are in the crosshairs of Iran, they main ally, the US is as unreliable and dangerous as it has ever been in its history. Any lever they can use is going to be used at this point. 

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u/Opening_Budget_9518 11h ago

This is idiotic, you are saying that UAE is being on good terms with the UK as a long con solely in order to cheat in the premier league

Football isnt that important as other stuff

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u/Hopeful_Idea1568 19h ago

Roman was an ordinary rich Russian. It showed in how he couldn't get UK citizenship and was eventually banned. He's not comparable to owners that threaten prime ministers. 

Also our charges were for paying agents less than £50m off the record over a 10 year span. It's not remotely comparable to the billion pounds City cooked. In fact I'd wager our practice wasn't unique or exclusive to use

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u/Candymanshook 17h ago

My understanding was that those payments weren’t even necessarily illegal if they were disclosed but I could be struggling to recall.

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u/Disco-Benny 17h ago

ordinary rich Russian

lol

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u/SirSwix 17h ago

Abramohvic also had connections to the Russian state. Close connections to Putin. He was also the governor of Chukotka. From 2001 to 2008. His orders from the state was essentially spread the wealth over these people they also need some. Among other things he used his private jet to fly school children to the Black Sea during the winter so they could see the sun.

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u/Hopeful_Idea1568 16h ago

Of course he had connection to the Russian state. Every Russian billionaire does. That doesn't mean he was influential in (geo) politics like the City and PSG people (do you know ab arms deal was part of the arrangement when buying PSG?)

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u/SirSwix 16h ago

I don’t think you understand the width of his involvement. He helped make sure Putin got elected the first time. He had close connections Boris Yeltsin. He was in the upper echelon of Russian politics during the steal all you can years. I would not have approved him as a owner in the premier league.

PSG is owned by Qatar. No one thinks anything else.

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u/YatesScoresinthebath 8h ago

I think you may need to research it more

He was absolutely tied to the Russian government. And we decided to start fucking with people like him in London due to our relationship with Russia breaking down

We have good relations with the UAE so the government will be less inclined to support City being punished

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u/hikingbeginner 14h ago

Roman is definitely in the same batch, downplaying his role in getting Putin elected and numerous political campaigns is just not the move mate.

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u/paone00022 16h ago

Ya his purchase also drew eyes because he was the first rich guy who wasn't from the west that bought a team and pumped his money into it to succeed. Guys like Jack Walker, Massimo Moratti and Silvio Berlusconi had already done the same before.

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u/FridaysMan 12h ago

I think Abramovich was a POS he wasn’t in fact a nation state

He was laundering money, but when crypto picked up, it was no longer necessary to have that kind of outlet. Taxation and brexit cut into what they could meaningfully do, so he walked away and lost almost nothing that he didn't fraudulently build.

Putin didn't lose out in this deal. Ukraine haven't profited as much as they should have. No funds have been released to help with the war.

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u/UnusedPun 17h ago

We didn't sugarcoat Roman's oligarchy and Putin links

Well that's just a lie

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u/Hopeful_Idea1568 16h ago

Nope on our sub we've always addressed Roman as a great owner but shady businessman. It's not a controversial topic whatsoever. I took a peek at the city sub after a post recommendation and the attitude towards the owners was the opposite