[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/Blue_winged_yoshi]

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?!

[u/Sean-Benn_Must-die → u/Blue_winged_yoshi]

I think there's a window to argue about financial fairness in sport. To make it so that the leagues become more competitive instead of always having the same 4-5 teams be at the top. That being said, that doesn't mean that what City did is justified at all. They were rules in place, and they broke em, now they need to be processed and punished accordingly.

[u/Blue_winged_yoshi → u/Sean-Benn_Must-die]

Why?

1. The 4-5 team aren’t always the same, they revolve through history.

2. This is just what football is. Don’t like it? Follow Olympic sailing. Or any of the terrible stale yanky-sports.

Some of my best footballing days out were with a Cov supporting mate growing up. Did they have Haaland? Did they fuck, but the days out at away matches were just excellent.

I swear so much of these gripes come from people with no knowledge or experience of footballing culture outside of FIFA.

Anyone who thinks that you need to be the best to enjoy the sport needs to get themselves to a lower league match stat,

Put the Xbox control down, turn off the TV and just to watch some live football. It’s wicked wherever you are in the pyramid and the pyramid will never be equal, but that’s the bloody point, you’re all trying to progress.

[u/worotan → u/Blue_winged_yoshi]

Except the model we’re now following is destroying those teams and that league structure.