October 15: Major League Soccer (MLS) commissioner Don Garber says the league is not investigating New York City FC after sister club Manchester City was found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules.
An independent commission ruled last month that the City made “false payments” and inflated revenue and cut costs by more than 830 million pounds ($1.1 billion), mostly between 2009 and 2018. The City denies the charges and has appealed.
NYCFC is part of the City Football Group, which owns 12 clubs and is majority owned by a vehicle owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. Khaldoon Al Mubarak chairs both City and CFG, and Ferran Soriano is their CEO.
Links go further. NYCFC CFO Andrew Widdowson was Manchester City’s chief financial officer and CFO from 2005 to 2018 before moving to New York to work on stadium financing. Both clubs are sponsored by Etihad Airways, which also has the naming rights to Etihad Park, NYCFC’s new stadium in Queens that will open in the summer of 2027. There have been no allegations of wrongdoing against NYCFC, which won the MLS Cup in 2021.
Speaking at Front Office Sports’ Tuned In Summit, Garber said, “We’re fortunate to have owners in our league who own multiple teams in each league. We have Stan Kroenke who owns Arsenal (and the Colorado Rapids) and we have owners who own teams in Spain, Italy and the rest of the world.
“MLS is looking at how the owners are doing under our rules here in Major League Soccer. I will say that what NYCFC has done through their own ownership, the City Football Group and investing in our league, building a great team at NYCFC, building an MLS Next Pro stadium in New Jersey and obviously their stadium opening in Queens is something we appreciate and appreciate.
“But we’re not in the business of looking at what our team owners are doing in other leagues. The concept of multiple team ownership is something that we all live and manage and have our own governance in relation to what their behavior is.”
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at nick.webster@insideworldfootball.com