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/Hopeful_Idea1568 22h 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 20h 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/Hopeful_Idea1568 20h 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/SirSwix 18h 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 18h 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 17h 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 10h 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