Ruling finds Manchester City in breach of financial rule charges

Man City investigation reaches boiling point: An independent commission has found Manchester City in breach of 114 of the 115 financial rule charges brought against it by the Premier League, the Financial Times reports — a verdict against a club owned by one of Abu Dhabi's most senior royals, landing just as UK-UAE relations are back on firm footing. The findings have not been published, and sanctions have yet to be determined. Club Chair — and Mubadala CEO — Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in a statement that the process remains ongoing “with significant elements to be completed” and maintains its longstanding denial of wrongdoing.

What is this case actually about? The Premier League charged City in February 2023 after a multi-year investigation, alleging breaches between seasons 2009/10 and 2017/18 covering financial reporting — including sponsorship revenue, related parties, and operating costs — manager and player remuneration, compliance with UEFA and Premier League financial rules, and cooperation with the investigation. The charges were referred to an independent commission. If the reported findings stand through the remaining process, penalties could range from fines and points deductions to expulsion from the league or compensation for other clubs.

Where football meets foreign policy

Since 2008, City has been owned by UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also the brother of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and chair of the USD 385 bn Mubadala. Al Mubarak took a pointed swipe at the league, saying it had respected due process on the basis that the Premier League would act as an impartial regulator “free from partisan influence.” Simon Penney, a former UK trade commissioner to the Middle East, told the FT there may be a feeling in Abu Dhabi that City has been singled out, but that if the breaches are genuine, it will be hard to call the case politically motivated. We flagged this risk in February 2025, when the UAE had reportedly raised the case with the UK government.

There is some scar tissue here: UK-UAE ties had already been strained by disagreements like the Telegraph saga, according to the Financial Times. Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI’s attempt to take control of the newspaper was derailed after the UK moved to restrict foreign-state ownership of British newspapers, eventually forcing it to pursue a sale.

The relationship has moved on since: British warplanes helped defend the UAE against Iranian drones and missiles during this year’s conflict, helping rebuild trust between the two countries, the paper reports. In April, the UK and UAE also agreed a new cooperation framework covering defense, trade and investment, AI, and the energy transition, and the UAE is also looking to secure a specific trade agreement with the UK, on top of the existing one with the wider GCC bloc.

And Downing Street now has a Manchester connection: Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, replaced Starmer in July and opened his first call with Sheikh Mohamed by thanking him for the UAE's investment in the city. Burnham and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, an MP for Manchester, are said to have good personal relations with Al Mubarak, who met Reynolds in London in the past couple of weeks, though a senior government figure told the FT that City wasn't discussed. Burnham’s business envoy, Varun Chandra, is working to keep the ruling from spilling into the wider relationship. “We don't think there will be any retaliation,” the senior government figure said.

There's a lot of money riding on keeping it that way: Bilateral trade was worth about GBP 25 bn last year, according to UK officials, and the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership, which Al Mubarak oversees, has generated GBP 30 bn in investment commitments, the FT reports.

What’s next

So where’s the real risk? Not the ruling itself, says a former official, who told the FT that Abu Dhabi “presumably knew this was coming.” The bigger danger is UK commentators or politicians using the verdict to take a wider swipe at the UAE, which is what happened with the Telegraph deal. Emirati academic Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said the two sides now need to handle the case “legally rather than politically.”

What to look out for: The commission still has to set sanctions, and City can challenge the findings once they are published. The real test for the relationship comes if those sanctions are severe, a points deduction or worse. Watch whether Abu Dhabi raises the case with London again, and whether it surfaces in the bilateral trade talks.