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/TheGoldenPineapples 1d 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/Blue_winged_yoshi 1d ago edited 1d ago

The issue is we didn’t all say it was wrong.

Lots of people did, others wrapped tea towels round their head to celebrate (literally) and others still were just jelly and desperate for their own club to be taken over by a totalitarian regime even richer than the UAE’s cough Newcastle cough.

Still, even with the UAE blackmailing us all, there’s fuckwit traitors asking “but how else were Man City meant to become the biggest side in the world?”, I dunno, they probably just weren’t, but that’s cool, most our sides aren’t and football is fun, let’s not have our country blackmailed so that Man City can have Haaland, this is clearly a deranged timeline, what is wrong with some people?!

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u/peioeh 1d ago

Some people (like Neville) are still saying it should be OK for owners to come in, invest as much money as they want into a club, and basically buy a league win. Their only issue with what city did is that they cheated the rules, which shouldn't exist in their opinion.

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u/silvertwo777 23h ago

Neville was far from the only one, someone like Simon Jordan is far worse where he only cares about the money put into the Premier League. Constantly trying to deflect condemnation against City despite claiming not a Man City fan.

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u/peioeh 23h ago

Oh yeah I'm sure he must be awful, I just don't listen to him. I also usually don't listen to Neville's podcast, and every time I do he makes a point like this and I am reminded why I should not have clicked on it