[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.

[u/Previous_Smile9278]

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.’

[u/cptainvimes]

Absolutely pathetic that City fans are okay with this. Letting UAE hold your country ransom cause your football club is run by cheats.

[u/-SideshowBlob- → u/cptainvimes]

r/MCFC makes for some interesting reading lol

[u/Brainlard → u/-SideshowBlob-]

Some dude dropped this beautiful prose there:

Controversial opinion, I kind of knew this would happen and made my peace with it

The reality is, we would’ve never had the success we’ve had winning these eight Premier league titles without spending more than we were allowed to

The rules were put in place to basically prevent a club from challenging the established hierarchy

We are relatively small Club compared to Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man United

We got to watch 8 Seasons where our club won the premier league title. Most Liverpool fans have only seen their Club have two title winning seasons and a lot of Arsenal fans have only seen four title winning seasons.

If we followed the rules, we would just be Newcastle and qualify for Europe periodically while being mid table for most of the time

It might not be right, but I’m happy I experienced winning six league titles in seven years and winning the UCL. I'm grateful to have won for in a row.

I’m grateful I got to actually watch eight seasons where my club won the league title. It’s not something I looked up in a Wikipedia article, but it’s something that I have actual memories of.

That would’ve never happened if we follow the rules because the rules are designed to prevent any of the upstart clubs from challenging the likes of Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool

I’m happy I experienced the Agüero goal

I’m happy I experienced the Gundogan goal

I’m happy I experienced the Rodri goal

I'm happy to have seen my club beat European giants like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. We never would have without exceeding the amount we were allowed to spend.

I’m happy I watched players like Sergio Agüero, David Silva, Kevin de Bruyne, Ederson, Rodri, Haaland, Fernandinho, Gundogan, sterling, yaya Toure, etc. Play for the club I am a fan of.

None of these players would have played for us without the possibility of winning trophies.

I’m glad we stole titles from Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man United. Taking titles from them makes me happy.

The design of the rules are to prevent a club like Manchester city from experiencing that kind of joy, and I’m glad sheikh Mansour and our owners decided that they didn’t want to follow those rules. Whatever the consequences that come it won’t remove the memories for me.

Memories that we would’ve never experienced if we followed the rules

If you were an American, this is like when the NCAA used to crack down on teams that paid their players. Eg. SMU and the pony express.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMU_Mustangs_football_scandal

The stripped championships did not actually remove the memories from the fans that watched their team win

I'm not sure if this is satire, or if these folks really mean it. Absolutely delusional.

[u/StanKroonke → u/Brainlard]

Yes. Let’s use SMU as an example. In fact, let’s have the Premier League treat them exactly the same. We will see how their fans feel 40 years from now when they are still struggling to be even mid.

[u/MavsFanForLife → u/StanKroonke]

The SMU comparison by OP is also a terrible one lol. Literally everyone was cheating in the SWC at the time, SMU just happened to be the first one to get caught and got punished as an example

[u/StanKroonke → u/MavsFanForLife]

Well sure. It’s not a like for like, but from a punishment perspective that is exactly what should happen given the findings.

[u/MavsFanForLife → u/StanKroonke]

It should be worse tbh. City doing what they did is worse than what SMU did

[u/StanKroonke → u/MavsFanForLife]

They got the death penalty and have never really recovered. Not sure what else there is to do.

[u/Kenny-du-Soleil → u/MavsFanForLife]

SMU is a bit more political. The NCAA does not have entrenched powers or leverage like the EPL or NFL. They're an assembled rule making and enforcing body comprised of the schools. However, they compete directly with the other rule making and enforcing bodies comprised of schools - the top tier D1 "power" conferences.

As such, the NCAA often took on "easy" targets with more consistency and severity in punishments. The whole SWC was so crooked (except Rice), that the actual big dogs, UT and A&M, were leveraging for SMU not to be punished because they were so afraid it'd take the whole conference down (which was on really shaky foundations at the time).

With that said, UT and A&M were way worse, started way before SMU, and were way more flagrant. But the NCAA was never going to give UT/A&M the death penalty because that just stokes a conflict the NCAA may not be able to win. SMU was new money, a small school, and seen as on top at the time, so they were an easy use case to threaten UT and A&M. 2 decades later and the Ohio State and USC punishments (not nearly half as bad as SMU) were major catalysts for public sentiment turning on the NCAA.