Why the Man City funding scandal is so much bigger than people realise
The scandal of how Manchester City is funded is not just a football story, it has the potential to rip millions of overseas investment out of this struggling country. How the hell does the government navigate this one?
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What’s the story?
How much does it cost to top the Premier League? A secret £830 million, it seems.
Manchester City, and its billionaire Abu Dhabi owners, have been found guilty of a scheme to hide millions pumped into the club, breaking UK spending rules – and possibly a few laws too.
It's a problem that kicked off in the beautiful game, but is landing now in politics.
Since Sheikh Mansour bought Manchester City in 2008, he and the United Arab Emirates have invested enormous amounts of money into regenerating the city. This scheme was celebrated by its then-Mayor Andy Burnham, and he was celebrated for it.
Many people called it 'Manchesterism".
But after giving his (also celebrated) first speech at the Labour Party conference as leader, in which he spoke against big corporations trampling on the average person, will he stand with his city's big investors, or with those who feel wronged by Man City's financial actions?
“This is about geopolitics, it's about economics, it's about the power of a nation, and not just about a football club,” says Jon Sopel.
He says there is now the possibility of the UAE stepping in to ask Andy Burnham's government to step in and stop potential sanctions against the club, with the threat of cutting the money it has pumped into the country.
“What does Andy Burnham do there? How does Andy Burnham navigate this when, if you listen to his conference speech, it was all about how the big guys, the shareholders, always win and the customers always lose out.”
Why is it so important to protect the reputation of the Premier League?
With Manchester City sat atop of the league, helped by those undeclared UAE millions, the scandal threatens the English game’s reputation.
As one of the UK’s biggest exports, that could be really bad news.
“If you look at what football rights sell for around the world, the English Premier League is the crown jewel of all the different football associations,” Jon says.
“The Premier League sells for far more than anyone else's football league, and that brand is in danger of looking really badly tarnished now.’
He says the club, and its owners, believed and acted like British laws did not apply to them because of their "incredible wealth".
A refusal by the government to act would likely prompt huge backlash from fans from almost every other English club, especially those who feel cheated out of wins in tournaments with Man City.
Will this burst Andy Burnham’s ‘Manchesterism’ bubble?
The Labour Party conference was a success for the Prime Minister, but the growing crisis surrounding Manchester City, the money being ploughed into Manchester could now derail his political plans.
“This is, in effect, Burnham's dirty political secret,” says Lewis Goodall.
“When people go to Manchester today, it is a remarkable success story.
“But where has all the money there come from? It's not from Manchester City Council. It's not come from the council tax bills of people who live in Manchester.”
The city has, Lewis says, been rebuilt as the product of "direct foreign investment", and that money has come from the Middle East and China.
One of the key messages of Burnham's conference speech was reclaiming the term "taking back control", and how that meant putting power back in the hands of local officials, not closing borders.
“They've been buying huge swaths of land from the city council, in active cooperation of the city council and Andy Burnham himself,” he adds.
“But we don't have control over that. That's not about our control.”
Can the UK afford to turn its back on overseas investment?
Andy Burnham has said that Brexit has done more harm to the UK than good., Many would agree.
Since leaving the EU, cash in this country has all but dried up.
“Britain is not a wealthy country,” says Jon.
“We need investment if Britain is to grow and regenerate these inner cities.
“That money is coming from abroad, and that is something that people have got to wake up to.”
But does this go against absolutely everything the Prime Minister has promised the people of Britain?
“Andy Burnham is trying to return a politics of control, and it is really potent because people feel the lack of control of our own destiny,” says Lewis.
"You can have control when you are master of your own destiny, when you don't borrow money, when you have enough adequate resources and national resilience."
That, he adds, becomes an impossible task when your country is being rebuilt with foreign money.
“So much of British policy-making has been to outsource control, money or influence, and Britain is becoming less powerful over time," Lewis says.
"Britain has seldom, economically speaking or politically speaking, felt smaller than it does right now."