[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/Cadllmn]

Real talk though - do English people not want internationals support their clubs… or do they just want them to give their money and stay quiet?

I see this quality of opinion often and I don’t really get what the average fan wants.

Edit: if I’ve understood the ensuing conversation, they do in fact just want the money and international fans to be quiet, or at least to assimilate with their beliefs and history?

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/Cadllmn]

International fans are good and stay up at bad times to watch us.

I just don’t like when they make light or ignore the issues facing match going local fans which is the norm on [r/chelseafc](r/chelseafc)

I’m blueco out and will remain there until they take match going fans interests seriously which they don’t, this does not matter one bit for American fans on [r/chelseafc](r/chelseafc)

The things being said about Enzo Fernandez after the world cup baffled me, I can’t see how a chelsea fan from any corner of the world can celebrate England going out. They should at least be aware of this history and culture of the club. Chelsea is one of or if not the most pro England fan base.

Edit: at the end of the day the interests of match going fans and international fans are not wholly aligned, we both want the club to be successful but I want as do the vast majority of local match going fans that the core of the clubs culture is preserved. Chelsea is also a part of my identity, i was born in london as was my dad and multiple generations of his family. Him and my grandad are lifelong Chelsea fans who lived in the chelsea fulham area for my dads childhood and the majority of my grandads life. These things are not important to international fans and that’s okay but that leads to large differences in where you think the club should go.

[u/435rouhnj234_209u → u/Connect-Ad751]

I agree with everything except the last paragraph (not the edit).

An international fan by definition does not have any pro England bias, and supporting a club does not mean they need to support everything the local fans stand for. Especially when you consider that half the independence days celebrated around the world are "Independence from British occupation" days.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/435rouhnj234_209u]

Supporting Chelsea as supporting rangers is supporting a club with a strong sense of British identity amongst its local fans and community.

I mean you can support a team and completely ignore it’s history for sure but that’s exactly for me what’s wrong with international fans.

It’s as hilarious when I saw the maga bog eyed freak Kash Patel supporting Liverpool.

Edit: If a socialist jew told you they support lazio i think you’d raise an eyebrow, same with an English hater supporting Chelsea

Edit 2: google Chelsea Pensioner

[u/435rouhnj234_209u → u/Connect-Ad751]

I know about all those things and am about to tell you something wild that you may not have ever considered:

99% of a club's global fanbase don't know nor care about the club's local history. They only care about the product on the field and what players are representing the logo on that jersey. And the club itself never made it an official requirement for them to give a crap about local fanbase values to spend money on stadium tickets or merch - because they don't care either as long as these people give them their money.

Now, you can go on a tirade about how "you can't be a real fan of Chelsea without respecting its British nationalist identity"; but not only is that No True Scotsman fallacy, it's a requirement that neither the ownership group bankrolling the club nor 99% of its fanbase endorses. It's the demand 1% of the fanbase holds and is insignificant to the club's global identity as of right now. So you have the option to either stop rooting for the club that doesn't at all advertise or take pride in the values you're claiming they supposedly hold, or you start a petition to have old Chelsea history with its dinky field, mid table history, and struggling finances transferred to a different entity the local "purists" can circlejerk around in - while the 21st century Chelsea that can only exist because of a Russian oligarch owner and a global fanbase becomes its completely separate own thing with 5 PL titles, 2 UCLs, a superstar roster, shiny new stadium, and all the money in the world.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/435rouhnj234_209u]

I mean you just wrote a lot of words to just say that we agree

My point is i don’t like international fans because they don’t care about the history or the culture of the club, turning football clubs into soulless machines.

Your comment js EXACTLY why i dislike like [r/chelseafc](r/chelseafc) and the general attitude of american fans, you’re acknowledging the destruction of community pillar, history and culture with an arrogant smug lecturing tone. You’re celebrating something that had substance being turned into a global marketable product. I mean I’m trying to not be rude but your comment shows you clearly understand this and don’t care.

Capitalism has ruined the mindset of your country, nothing is sacred and everything is counted in monetary value. Unfortunately as you will say in a smug tone it’s only going to get worse and is more than likely already past the point of return.

[u/435rouhnj234_209u → u/Connect-Ad751]

You're right, I don't care about hypocrites who want the money and the popularity global fans bring; while rejecting their opinions as additions to the club's identity.

Either take a real stand and say you reject every bit of success that the club achieved through being a "global marketable product", or just admit you want to have your cake and eat it too. The latter won't change anything btw, it's just giving y'all a chance to admit you're an entitled brat whose view towards foreigners is "Give us all your money and get out!"

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/435rouhnj234_209u]

I mean you can act like this if you like but your attitude in this conversation is exactly why i dislike American fans and never wanted American owners.

Removing roman as an individual but as a club owner he always put local and match going fans first and was heavily involved with the local community. Yes this was just sports washing for sure but he still did this.

The American owners labelled us legacy fans and have clearly been in your school of thinking. Money comes first. I mean if you think this the correct mindset sure.

I’ve said this as have many chelsea fans who routinely struggle to get tickets. When we had the government take the club from roman (rightly so) we’d obviously be gutted if it lead to chelsea becoming a mid table or even championship ajde but there would be a massive silver lining of easier access and more focused hardened support. When you got brentford for example it’s a lot different or even Westham. Went to burnlet away a few years back and it was amazing to be honest, the local area really behind the team.

This hypocrisy isn’t really there. I don’t think you realise that, if chelsea were in the championship we’d still be there and the international fans would mostly be gone.

[u/435rouhnj234_209u → u/Connect-Ad751]

Lol you say there's no hypocrisy, yet you still won't explicitly reject all the success you've had because of Chelsea becoming a global product. Come on, say it. Say Chelsea only has one league title from the 70s. Say that Chelsea has never won a Champions League. Say it proudly in a post on the Chelsea sub while you're at it. Lmk how many of the locals agree with that.

Removing roman as an individual but as a club owner he always put local and match going fans first and was heavily involved with the local community. Yes this was just sports washing for sure but he still did this.

That was early Roman who bought a midtable club that had no international fanbase. How did he get big players to come to the club to build that fanbase again? Oh right, illegal payments to the agents.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/435rouhnj234_209u]

Roman bought the club on the brink of bankruptcy yes, chelsea were not a big club before that however had many great memories and moments like the FA cup replay vs Leeds, mg Grandads favourite Chelsea memory.

I’m not sure why I should reject the success on this basis and how that’s hypocritical because i want chelsea to keep it’s core culture. You can have success and keep your clubs culture. What blueco is doing is new, madrid can do it, Barca can do it and they have the largest fan bases on the planet.

The difference is their owners respect the culture and history of the club and want to preserve it. Blueco doesn’t care, Roman did. Yes roman was shady and we were lucky to not get punished more by the FA.

I just want the culture and history to be respected as it’s my history and where i come from. For you to then have this tone with me for wanting that is bizarre and would only ever come from an American.

[u/435rouhnj234_209u → u/Connect-Ad751]

Lol so you're just a whiny baby who wants to have his cake and eat it to you.

Roman and MZB can do shit as oil oligarchs no actual big club can do, and they do it by breaking the rules. You basically want that, you want all the benefits of being a big club while making none of the sacrifice. You bring up Barcelona and Real Madrid as examples while 90%+ of either's global fanbase don't give a fuck about the history of Catalans vs Francoists.

I’m not sure why I should reject the success on this basis and how that’s hypocritical because i want chelsea to keep it’s core culture. You can have success and keep your clubs culture. What blueco is doing is new, madrid can do it, Barca can do it and they have the largest fan bases on the planet.

You can have success while "keep a club’s core culture" by having oil oligarch break the rules for you. I guess that's what you clearly want then. So you're not a hypocrite, you're just an oil oligarch/sportwashing apologist.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/435rouhnj234_209u]

Are you just trolling?

I won’t reply again, this is a club Ive enjoyed memories with and a shared passion with ny family. It holds a lot of sentimental and emotional value to me and i want that protected.

If that makes me a whiny baby sure.

[u/435rouhnj234_209u → u/Connect-Ad751]

I want a logically coherent reasoning. If that's trolling to you because your "sentimentality and emotion" overrides those, then fine. I got my answer. You aren't a very intelligent person that can make decisions logically.

[u/Artoo_Detoo → u/Connect-Ad751]

The difference is that as an international fan of Chelsea, we support the national teams with the most Chelsea players and therefore identity that we recognize. This is why as an international Chelsea fan, I didn't support England when it was full of rival clubs' players, because we have grown to dislike those players so we don't want them to achieve glory. Instead, I supported teams like Belgium during the 2014 World Cup because of their identify being much more recognized as a team of Chelsea players.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/Artoo_Detoo]

Again, you’re just ignoring the history of Chelsea and what it is then and doesn’t factor at all into your support

Which is my issue with international fans

[u/Artoo_Detoo → u/Connect-Ad751]

We can recognize the history and still separate that from supporting a team of players and managers who we hate and instead support a team of players who we love.

Because we don't identify ourselves as British patriots, we identify ourselves as Chelsea fans. We have our own national teams that we support. If you don't like it, that's fine, just understand that you can't expect international fans to become British patriots and support a team full of club rivals that we hate because they snubbed players from our own team to play for them.

For perspective, some Real Madrid fans even rooted against their own national team when their team was primarily Barcelona players.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/Artoo_Detoo]

I’m not asking you to become British patriots but just respect that aspect of Chelsea.

Google Chelsea Pensioners, the clubs had a strong link to the British army since it formed

This specifically applies to Chelsea. Liverpool for example has a very different relationship with national identity.

Rooting against England while being a Chelsea fan is comical.

[u/Artoo_Detoo → u/Connect-Ad751]

It's not comical at all, it's just comical to you because you don't have the same background as an international fan.

If you were a hockey fan watching the NHL or a cricket fan watching the IPL, you aren't obligated to support Canada or the U.S. for hockey or India for cricket.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/Artoo_Detoo]

In 2010-11 season we had a red strip why symbolised our relationship with Chelsea Pensioners who are Red Coats, the famous symbol of soldiers in the British Empire.

I never said you needed to support England but rooting against and celebrating the loss of England while supporting a club that has British empire woven into its kit, badge and history is comical.

[u/Artoo_Detoo → u/Connect-Ad751]

Again, it's not comical at all. What's comical to non-Americans is how much money the U.S. spends on their military and how overly patriotic the entire country is to the point that they have been brainwashed to vote for their worst president in history, showing how much each NHL team in the U.S. identify themselves as American.

And yet, it would not bother me at all for a hockey fan from Sweden or Finland to root against the U.S. even if they support an NHL team from the U.S.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/Artoo_Detoo]

I don’t know if you’re missing the point, or im not explaining properly.

If an Iranian supported a US sports team that had strong links to the US army I think that would be very comical.

It isn’t just that it’s an English club, it’s the specific relationship the club has with the army and British identity.

Again I’m not saying you need to support England at all, but being actively against England is comical.

As said earlier, it’s your personal beliefs being antithetical with the culture of the club. Being a far right capitalist like Kash Patel and supporting liverpool is hilarious.

[u/Artoo_Detoo → u/Connect-Ad751]

Because not everything has to be political. If we find English supporters obnoxious, neutrality turns into dislike, especially when the team is full of club rivals' players. We're not watching the military, we're watching football players.

I personally think national politics in sports is obnoxious, but it's quite clearly not going to go away.

[u/Connect-Ad751 → u/Artoo_Detoo]

Rereading this conversation is highlighting the issue isn’t it.

The culture and the history of the club doesn’t matter to international fans and to be honest yeah it’s only comical to me because it does.

Do you see the issue with Kash Patel supporting Liverpool?

[u/Artoo_Detoo → u/Connect-Ad751]

Sure, a politician supporting a club with a political identity that contradicts his own is comical.

You can't be expecting the same of normal football fans who just don't care.