UAE threatens to pull billions from UK investments after Man City guilty verdict

The United Arab Emirates has warned Andy Burnham it is prepared to pull billions of pounds of investment out of Britain in retaliation for Manchester City’s guilty verdict, escalating a Premier League disciplinary case into a diplomatic and economic confrontation. The threat was first reported by The Telegraph and confirmed in detail on Saturday. (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/16893136/uae-threatens-uk-investments-man-city-sham-deals/)

Abu Dhabi is threatening to scrap private investment in a Silicon Valley-style hi-tech hub between Oxford and Cambridge that Labour ministers had courted it to back, with the club’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak reportedly invited to visit the project on February 10. Over the past five years the UAE has poured more than £30 billion into British defence, life sciences and technology. (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/16893136/uae-threatens-uk-investments-man-city-sham-deals/)

Downing Street did not dispute last night that the verdict had “undermined” the UAE’s “appetite for future grand-scale UK commitments”. The government faces mounting questions after it emerged Al Mubarak visited Downing Street on September 14 to meet Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in his capacity as chief executive of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund; insiders insist the case was not discussed. (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/16893136/uae-threatens-uk-investments-man-city-sham-deals/)

The row deepens Burnham’s political exposure. On Thursday, Downing Street was forced to insist the guilty verdict was “serious” after the Prime Minister was criticised for calling it “frankly extraordinary” intervention when he said he would be “really concerned” if the club’s owners sold up. The Prime Minister has since rowed back, saying the independent process must “run its course” and wrongdoing must face “appropriate consequences”. (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/16893136/uae-threatens-uk-investments-man-city-sham-deals/)

City were found guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of Premier League financial rules after a four-year investigation, having artificially inflated their finances by more than £900 million through “sham contracts”, according to the independent commission’s findings published on September 29. The club deny wrongdoing and lodged their appeal on Friday, the deadline day. (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/16893136/uae-threatens-uk-investments-man-city-sham-deals/)

Both sides have an investment summit pencilled in for this month. (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/16893136/uae-threatens-uk-investments-man-city-sham-deals/)