The Manchester City sponsorship scandal came to light after a leaked report was obtained by YouTube filmmakers. It was disclosed in the official report that the club received payments of $30 million from the United Arab Emirates. These payments came through an ambiguous party which was not supposed to be imbursing the money.
Furthermore, it was disclosed by Times that UEFA made this report in 2020 but due to unforeseen reasons never published it. The contents of the report covered the payments made to the club in 2012 and 2013 on behalf of City’s main sponsors. This was against the UEFA financial regulations as there is a limit set to the amount of money club owners can put in.
UEFA’s Club Financial Control Board report made it clear that these payments were not made by the main sponsor Etisalat. However, these payments came from the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) which is an investment group headed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. As Sheikh Mansour is also the owner of the club so these payments came as ‘disguised equity funding’.
The name of the person was also disclosed in the disciplinary hearings by Manchester City’s lawyer. The person was identified as Jaber Mohamed who worked as a broker providing financial services to commercial entities. It was enquired in the report why Etisalat or ADUG required the assistance of a broker for paying sponsorship liabilities. Man City’s lawyer argued in defence that Etisalat repaid money to the owners but this defence was not accepted by UEFA.
Leading up to these legal proceedings UEFA banned the club for 2 years in 2019. This ban was later overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) because the investigators were unable to produce the lead witness Jaber Mohamed for testimony.
Over 100 allegations were made against Man City which also included non-cooperation with the investigators. Moreover, the club also didn’t provide the documents that were required by the investigators from 2018-2023. In UEFA financial rules there is no limit for sponsorship funding but there is to equity funding of the owners.
It was also disclosed in the report that the Man City management was aware of the nature of the payments. As stated in the report, “The management of the club was well aware that the payments totaling £30 million made by Jaber Mohamed were made as equity funding, not as payments for the sponsor on account of genuine sponsorship liabilities”.
The filmmakers were regarded as a paid campaign from the middle eastern states because of the complex geopolitical and regional differences. However, the filmmakers remained anonymous and denied any funding from a middle eastern state or any agency. However, Man City still thinks that this is a paid campaign on behalf of the enemies in the Gulf.
Moreover, financial ambiguities were also found in the fundings that the club received from their lead sponsor, Etihad Airways. It was found out that ADUG was once again behind the funding from Etihad. This came to light after Man City emails were published by Der Spiegel, and these emails informed that Etihad paid only $8 million for sponsorships worth more than $167.
CAS, however, found this information insufficient and mentioned that an inference from the Etisalat case can not be drawn. The reason for that was the clause of time restriction found in the Etisalat. This forced the CAS to enforce the Statute of Limitations clause.
Der Spiegel found and published newly leaked emails that made the case interesting. It was Man City director Simon Pearce who was sent $91 million to Etihad. Simon also holds a senior executive position in the Abu Dhabi government.
The Manchester City Football Club (MCFC) did not comment on the credibility of these emails. However, the club remained firm in their stance that these emails were “criminally obtained”. The hacker, Rui Pinto, who obtained these emails denies this.
Another case, as mentioned by The Athletic, was of the underage transfer made by Man City of Brahim Diaz. Interestingly, a payment of $300,000 was made to Malaga as compensation fee through Diaz’s agent Pere Guardiola, brother of Pep Guardiola who is City’s manager.
The Man City UEFA scandal is not the first case where the Premier League has accused the club of financial regulations. Many clubs have been found breaching the Financial Fair Play (FPP) rules set out by UEFA and facing long cases. This case also is far from over and is not expected to be completed in the next 2 to 3 years also. Man City is always a top contender for the Champions League and a ban can seriously harm their trophy cabinet.
