How far is the war in the middle east affecting Machester City?

By Tony Attwood

This is, of course, a football website, but it is also a website that follows issues related to football, and as we have seen in all the years since the blog started, politics can play a part too.  Which means that so can warfare, which brings in Manchester City.

Now let me say from the start that I have no special inside information on the connection between Manchester City and its majority shareowner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi royal family, who bought the club in 2008.  I only know what is published by various journalists who cover matters involving the Middle East.   So I know, as we all do, that the club is of course, run by the City Football Group, which in turn is run by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.   There are other shareholders such as Silver Lake, but from what I can gather, they own quite a bit below one-fifth of the group.

And I must also stress that the Sheikh is not Iranian; he is an Emirati.  But we all know of course, that since 28 February this year, Iran has been targeting several Gulf states with acts of warfare, and a fair number of these attacks have been on the United Arab Emirates and its centre of government.   And perhaps just as much to the point, the centre of oil production, sitting as it does on an island in the Persian Gulf.

Plus, in case you missed it, I should add that since 28 February, Israel and the United States forces have been running airstrikes against Iran while Iran has been targeting various Gulf states.

I also think it is widely accepted by a number of commentators that the UAE has been intervening in, and indeed many would agree, promoting counter-revolutionary secessionist causes in Yemen, Sudan, and Libya.

This of course, is not to say the Manchester City football club has any involvement in such matters whatsoever – obviously not.  But there are issues of funding by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which are raised in some reports, that might be considered concerning, as he is the Vice President, the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Chairman of the Presidential Court, as well as being the chair of the Abu Dhabi ruling family.  He is also chairman of the Emirates Investment Authority.

And over-recching all this, as is made clear on the news in the UK every day, the United Arab Emirates is involved in the current conflict between the USA and Israel on one hand and Iran on the other.

Now of course, although the UAE has experienced a significant number of attacks, there has been no mention of any connection between Manchester City, the City Group, the Abu Dhabi royal family, and the developing war involving the United States and Israel.  And yet it must be possible that the enemies of the Abu Dhabi royal family who are engaged in this war will be looking at all the assets around the world of the family that owns Manchester City, not least because the UAE has invested in Yemen, Sudan and Libya in the past.

Now if you are a regular reader of Untold, you will know that we often take a look at possible links between organisations, people and countries that are not mentioned elsewhere – and indeed some of these links are of no consequence. 

As part of this, I do like to look around at stories that the media seem deliberately to ignore.  And in this regard, it does strike me that the Manchester City club might be under some pressure due to the ownership by  Sheikh Mansour.

For as things stand the UAE is accused of backing the paramilitary “Rapid Support Forces” in the Sudan civil war, and that Force is accused of human rights abuses and war crimes.

Of course, there have been protests before about Manchester City’s links with the UAE and the obvious humanitarian crisis in Sudan.   It is also reported that Pep Guardiola, very much to his credit, has spoken out against killings in Sudan, which may not 100% please the club’s owners. 

Besides such matters, the issue of the 115 charges for alleged financial rule breaches, and indeed the League Cup final itself, seems utterly trivial, but with City Group ownership of clubs stretching across the world and colliding with warfare, it seems to me wrong just to pretend (as the English media does) that football is isolated from such issues.  To my mind, it isn’t.  Hence this little article.