{"id":919103,"date":"2026-10-03T13:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919103\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T13:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:26:09","slug":"uae-may-halt-uk-investments-after-manchester-city-guilty-verdict-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919103\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE may halt UK investments after Manchester City guilty verdict | Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Arab Emirates<\/a> have reportedly warned the government it could cancel big investments in the UK after Manchester City were found guilty by an independent commission.<\/p>\n

Emirati officials said \u201cthe Premier League\u2019s actions\u201d would \u201chave an influence on the bilateral state relationship\u201d, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the Telegraph said the UAE is threatening to withdraw a multi-billion pound investment into a Silicon Valley-style Oxbridge tech hub.<\/p>\n

The Premier League brought 115 charges against Man City for breaches of financial rules between 2009 and 2018. Of those charges, 114 were upheld by an independent commission in September, which described City\u2019s activities as a \u201csham\u201d multiple times, adding that their witnesses used at the hearing were \u201cdishonest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Telegraph also reports that Man City chair Khaldoon Al Mubarak met Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, in Downing Street two weeks before the Premier League announced its decision.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Downing Street said the guilty verdict against City was \u201cserious\u201d, after Andy Burnham was accused of making a \u201cfrankly extraordinary\u201d intervention in support of the football club\u2019s owners.<\/p>\n

A No 10 spokesperson issued the statement after the prime minister said he would be \u201creally concerned\u201d to see the current owners sell up.<\/p>\n

Conservative shadow sport minister Louie French had accused the prime minister of \u201cpublicly backing the owners\u201d amid an investigation into the club\u2019s funding over recent years, describing his comments as \u201cfrankly extraordinary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by the BBC earlier this week if he was worried about the current owners selling the club, Mr Burnham said: \u201cI would be really concerned to lose them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester, obviously, the building of Manchester City<\/a> into the global force that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked also if his dealings with the club would stand up to scrutiny, he said: \u201cI do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn\u2019t just put into the Etihad and the campus around it but also into the city \u2013 but yes, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Premier League said an independent commission found City arranged \u201csham\u201d commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were required to pay only a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.<\/p>\n

The commission found that the remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment + Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.<\/p>\n

City lodged an appeal along with a short statement, saying the commission\u2019s ruling contained \u201cclear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Insisting on its innocence, the club reiterated it had filed \u201ca comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence [that] exists in support of all of its positions\u201d on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Arab Emirates have reportedly warned the government it could cancel big investments in the UK after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-919103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}