March 26: The scale of Abu Dhabi’s investment in Manchester is coming under fresh scrutiny after UAE officials warned Manchester City’s guilty verdict could have consequences far beyond football.
The warning comes against the backdrop of a Guardian investigation which found UAE-linked companies have increased their land holdings in Greater Manchester by 39% over the past decade, from 73ha in 2016 to 101ha this year.
The number of registered titles has risen from 51 to 168, with companies linked to City owner Sheikh Mansour owning at least 34 of them, including the Etihad Stadium. Their interests represent approximately two-thirds of the identified lands owned by the Emirates.
The real estate inquiry comes as the Premier League case begins to spill over into politics.
The city was found guilty by an independent commission of 114 of 115 charges related to breaches of financial rules between 2009 and 2018, including the use of bogus sponsorship deals to conceal funding from property owners. The club appeals and continues to publicly reject the findings.
In the days following the ruling, UAE officials had warned the UK government that “the actions of the Premier League” would influence the wider bilateral relationship between the countries. A separate report said billions of pounds of planned Emirates investment in Britain could be reconsidered.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would be “really concerned” if Abu Dhabi City’s landlords were forced to leave, describing them as an important partner in the development of modern Manchester.
This dependence goes beyond the club.
Much of Mansour’s wider footprint has been built through Manchester Life, the development partnership formed between Manchester City Council and Abu Dhabi interests in 2014.
The original plan was presented as a £1 billion regeneration program capable of delivering more than 6,000 homes. Manchester Life itself has delivered 2,039, while the wider total including other developers is 4,878.
Just 8% of these homes are classed as affordable or social housing, and none of them were delivered directly by Manchester Life.
The financial relationship has also attracted attention.
In 2017, three property companies ultimately controlled by Mansour received £55m in loans through the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s housing investment fund. The loans were repaid in full, but councilors are looking into the approval process and the conditions under which the money was advanced.
A separate 2015 deal gave Abu Dhabi interests preferential access to certain development opportunities near central Manchester, while a council review published earlier this year acknowledged weaknesses in documentation, monitoring and oversight despite acknowledging the economic benefits of the regeneration programme.
None of these property deals are part of the Premier League’s case and there is no suggestion that the land deals themselves breach football regulations.
But the timing makes this more problematic. The city’s appeal could still overturn or reduce the force of the commission’s findings. If they stand, Football’s Independent Regulator has already confirmed it has the power to force an owner to sell where it believes a club has been mismanaged.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)
