‘Inconvenient truth’: Man City case spotlights realities of UK-UAE ties
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Analysts point to a much deeper network of high-stakes diplomacy and geopolitical economics between London and Abu Dhabi
When Liverpool fans greeted Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday with jeers and banners demanding the Abu Dhabi-owned football club be relegated, they took aim at what critics have long dubbed “sportswashing” – the practice of using high-profile sports investments to launder a tarnished international reputation.
Focusing solely on public relations, however, obscures a much deeper network of high-stakes diplomacy and geopolitical economics between London and Abu Dhabi.
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As mayor of Manchester during the Emirati-funded renewal of Britain’s second biggest city, Prime Minister Andy Burnham now finds himself trying to pull off a diplomatic rescue act to avert retaliation by the UAE.
Downing Street has made no secret of its worries that action by independent football regulators against City’s Emirati owners could have serious economic consequences.
Burnham, therefore, appears prepared to weather the domestic political storm, telling the BBC in an October 1 interview that he would be “really concerned to lose them” given that the UAE had been “such a huge partner” in building modern Manchester and turning City into a global force.
The prime minister’s initial response to the independent commission’s verdicts – which found the club’s leadership deliberately obstructive and evasive – was thus “tone deaf”, according to Guy Burton, a Brussels-based international relations researcher and co-host of The FootPol Podcast, a sports show focusing on the intersection of football and politics.
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With City’s appeal against the verdicts and further deliberations pending, any Premier League sanctions are unlikely to be unveiled until after the end of the season in May.
Burton also predicted additional fallout from other clubs “who feel they missed out on financial opportunities because of City’s financial doping”, much of which would play out during and after May, and “for years to come”.
“There are a lot of twists and turns still to come in this story, much as there are in the wider instability in the region,” Burton said.
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