Manchester City were once branded a ‘joke’ but now lead the way on and off the pitch

The sniggers were not just emanating from Old Trafford when the press release went out in August 2008. All over Europe, football was sceptical. 

‘Manchester City can confirm that a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Abu Dhabi United Group and Manchester City FC. A period of due diligence has now been entered.’

City had been bought by a sheik. Knowing their luck, he would be fake. After all, as Gary Neville wrote recently in his book, The People’s Game: ‘City were a joke.’

They had already had one supposed sugar daddy in Thaksin Shinawatra, former prime minister of Thailand, though he was embroiled in corruption allegations, which he denied. Nevertheless, it led to his bank accounts being frozen and a former owner stepping in to pay the players’ wages.

‘Typical City,’ wrote Neville. ‘They finally get a rich benefactor and his bank accounts turn out to be frozen. They had the Midas Touch in reverse.’

Manchester City won a remarkable Treble under Pep Guardiola and are the kings of Europe

Carlos Tevez joined the club from Manchester United, showcasing their ability to antagonise

Carlos Tevez joined the club from Manchester United, showcasing their ability to antagonise

City won the Champions League for the first time after beating Inter Milan in Istanbul

City won the Champions League for the first time after beating Inter Milan in Istanbul

Likewise, this new benefactor, Sheik Mansour, did not bode well. His spokesperson was Dubai TV personality Sulaiman Al-Fahim. He was promising City would buy Cristiano Ronaldo from United. ‘We are going to be the biggest club in the world,’ said Al-Fahim. City had finished the 2007-08 season losing 8-1 at Middlesbrough.

Their first big-money purchase was Robinho for £32million. Real Madrid had been trying to get him off the wage bill for months. Another Brazilian, Jo, would follow for £20m. He would score six goals for City.

Neville’s attitude at the time was: ‘Don’t worry. We’ve got Sir Alex Ferguson. We win trophies. City always shoot themselves in the foot.’ However, that summer, even before Sheik Mansour’s takeover, City had picked up a couple of low-profile signings at £6m a piece: Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta.

And yet by the time the deal with ADUG was confirmed a month later, the tone had shifted. Al-Fahim had been removed and a new young businessman was in charge, Khaldoon Al Mubarak. Observers of Abu Dhabi politics say this is the moment when the nation’s most powerful man, Mohammed bin Zayed, known as MBZ, started taking an interest.

He is Sheik Mansour’s older brother and in 2008 was already de facto the most important man in Abu Dhabi, having been named deputy crown prince. He only formally assumed his position as president of the United Arab Emirates – the confederation of which Abu Dhabi is the richest and most powerful entity – last year, when another brother died. But experts say he has been running Abu Dhabi and, by extension, the UAE for years.

Sheikh Mansour bought City in 2008 and the club immediately meant business under him

Sheikh Mansour bought City in 2008 and the club immediately meant business under him

Before Mansour's takeover, City had bought low-profile signings including Vincent Kompany

Before Mansour’s takeover, City had bought low-profile signings including Vincent Kompany

And Al Mubarak is MBZ’s man. Dr Chris Davidson, author of several books on the region, says: ‘Once the value of being identified with Man City was properly understood, the club were essentially put in the hands of the people who knew what they were doing.’

In other words, Al Mubarak. He is chair of Abu Dhabi’s Executive Affairs Authority, the executive arm of the Emirate which advises MBZ. He is also chief executive of Mubadala, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi worth £276bn. It was chaired by MBZ until recently and is now chaired by Sheik Mansour. The two brothers, along with siblings Sheik Abdullah, Sheik Tahnoon and Sheik Hazza, run Abu Dhabi, which dominates the UAE – but MBZ is the boss.

Quite how emotionally invested Sheik Mansour is invested in the project is hard to fathom. Before turning up at Saturday night’s final, the only game he had previously attended was in 2010.

Yet the club under his ownership clearly meant business. Al Mubarak himself has admitted the initial interest in the Sheik Mansour purchase took them by surprise. Asked whether Al-Fahim’s tone had embarrassed them, Al Mubarak told David Conn in his book Richer Than God: ‘That was an important trigger, the realisation that when you buy a Premier League club it is a totally different ball game. That had been underestimated.’

Whether the Abu Dhabi hierarchy genuinely knew what they were doing when they bought City is a moot point. They soon realised its potential. For an emerging nation on the cusp of becoming a crucial geopolitical player, City were a perfect global public relations vehicle. 

Because winning the Treble is a much better look than its increasingly close ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Or the treatment of still-imprisoned human rights campaigner Ahmed Mansoor, reportedly held in solitary confinement for an entire year. (The UAE deny Amnesty’s report, which they say is fabricated to drive an agenda.) Or the mass imprisonment and deportation of African migrant workers, denied legal representation, in 2021. (The UAE deny racism, saying they were part of prostitution and trafficking networks.)

If City were intended as a smokescreen, the project had to work. The old Carrington training ground was something of a shock to Al Mubarak. He told Conn: ‘I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was not the level of infrastructure that is the minimum for a top-level club. I remember leaving that trip and going back to Sheik Mansour and showing him pictures. And he was very straight to say this was unacceptable.’

Mansour (right) and the Abu Dhabi hierarchy quickly realised that City were full of potential

Mansour (right) and the Abu Dhabi hierarchy quickly realised that City were full of potential

City employees remember being quizzed by the new regime as to where the personnel department was located. There were blank looks all round. Did they mean the lady who dealt with payroll?

Fixing the infrastructure, though, would be easier than fixing City’s reputation for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They finished that season 10th, 40 points behind champions United. But in the summer of 2009 they did take Carlos Tevez from Old Trafford, their capacity to antagonise demonstrated with their ‘Welcome To Manchester’ poster, riffing off City fans’ claim they were the true Manchester club, with United’s stadium being located in the borough of Trafford.

In a dramatic derby that September, City equalised at Old Trafford in the 90th minute before United scored a 96th-minute winner to make it 4-3. ‘We have a neighbour and sometimes neighbours are noisy,’ said Ferguson afterwards.

Incumbent manager Mark Hughes was controversially replaced with Roberto Mancini in December 2009. The following season they looked to have qualified for the Champions League only for Tottenham to beat them at the Etihad in the penultimate game and secure fourth place at their expense. 

Meanwhile, United won their fourth title in five years. The established order seemed secure. City could never truly match United while their neighbours’ revenue dwarfed theirs. The problem was both the Premier League and UEFA had strict limits on spending. According to City’s own emails, they seemed to have hit on a way of limiting outgoings.

The club paid £1.45m of Mancini’s salary, but he was also paid £1.75m as a consultant to Sheik Mansour’s other team in Abu Dhabi, Al Jazira. In April 2011, they beat United in the FA Cup semi-final and went on to lift the Cup under Mancini, their first trophy for 42 years.

Roberto Mancini controversially replaced Mark Hughes but led City to the Premier League title

Roberto Mancini controversially replaced Mark Hughes but led City to the Premier League title

Sergio Aguero wheeled away in wild celebration after scoring the winning goal against QPR

Sergio Aguero wheeled away in wild celebration after scoring the winning goal against QPR

The following season the league title would follow. On the last day of the season, needing a win, they fell behind 2-1 to QPR. 

Edin Dzeko, on the losing Inter side on Saturday, scored the equaliser in injury time before, two minutes later, Sergio Aguero prompted commentator Martin Tyler’s immortal ‘Aguerooooooooo!’ line to win 3-2. At Sunderland, United had finished the game as champions and stood around to listen to the end of the City match, trooping off having lost the title on goal difference.

It felt like a corner had been turned but that autumn was even more significant in the City story. England had been conquered but Europe was still a foreign country. The dominant club of the era were Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, perhaps the greatest of all time. Imagine if you could transpose their infrastructure and his coaching ability on to City’s wealth?

That seemed to be the thinking in September 2012 when Ferran Soriano, who had been chief executive of Barca until 2008, arrived. A month later his compatriot, former Barca player Txiki Begiristain, who had been the sporting director during the Pep years at Barca, when they had secured two Champions League trophies and the 2009 treble, followed. Only one last leg of the tripod was required in Guardiola.

He was available – on a year’s sabbatical in New York – but even with his two colleagues at City, he moved to Bayern Munich in 2013. Soriano and Begiristain nevertheless ousted Mancini in May 2013 and now had two problems: their dream coach was not obtainable until 2016 at the earliest and they had a financial black hole. 

According to their own internal emails, the cost of sacking Mancini meant they would break UEFA’s FFP rules. Jorge Chumillas, chief financial officer at City Football Group, wrote: ‘We will have a shortfall of £9.9m. The deficit is due to RM [Mancini] termination. I think the only solution left would be an additional amount of AD [Abu Dhabi] sponsorship revenue that covers the gaps.’

Mancini, despite his success, was axed in 2013 and City identified Guardiola as a successor

Mancini, despite his success, was axed in 2013 and City identified Guardiola as a successor

Chumillas asked if he could backdate the contracts to make it look as though this had been the plan all along – FFP rules say you have to declare contracts and income at the start of the season. ‘Of course,’ replied City director Simon Pearce, Al-Mubarak’s right-hand man. ‘We can do what we want.’

The Guardiola gap was filled by Manuel Pellegrini. The club would be run in a holding pattern until Guardiola was available, though two League Cups and a Premier League title were won in the interim.

Still, City’s European form meant those sniggers around the continent never entirely died down. Initially they could not get out of the group stages. Then they could not get past the last 16. When they finally reached a semi-final in 2016, the insipidness of their performance against Real Madrid was startling. 

The established order still prevailed in Europe. In 2014, UEFA investigated City for FFP breaches. The club were furious, none more so than Al Mubarak. City’s legal counsel wrote that Al-Mubarak ‘says he would rather spend £30m on the best 50 lawyers in the world and sue them [UEFA] for the next 10 years than agree to a financial penalty’. City did settle with UEFA in 2014, paying a fine and agreeing to follow the rules.

In 2016, when Guardiola finally came, there was an initial sense of being underwhelmed. In Europe, Barca beat them 4-0 in the group stages and they lost to Monaco in the last 16. Knocked out of both domestic cups, they were third in the Premier League. But Premier League titles would come in 2018 and 2019, as would four League Cups from 2018.

City started slowly after Guardiola's appointment but then went on to win a host of trophies

City started slowly after Guardiola’s appointment but then went on to win a host of trophies

City won the top-flight this season but were charged by the Premier League with 115 offences

City won the top-flight this season but were charged by the Premier League with 115 offences

Only Liverpool and Covid disruption interrupted their accumulation of titles in 2020 before normal service resumed in 2021, 2022 and 2023. A record-equalling FA Cup final win was recorded in 2019, as was the 2-1 win at Wembley over United last weekend.

Commercial success continues. By 2022, City were the richest club in the world according to Deloitte. And City’s ascent has not been accompanied by the celebratory guard of honour Sheik Mansour and Al Mubarak perhaps imagined in 2008. The club were charged again with breaking FFP rules in 2019, banned from the Champions League and fined €30m. 

They overturned much of that on appeal, though they were fined €10m for non- cooperation with UEFA. And then in February, the Premier League charged them with 115 offences, including misrepresenting financial information and salaries to Mancini and to players. City deny the allegations. But losing this case could see them kicked out of the Premier League and stripped of titles.

However, no one will take this Treble away and nowadays it is United and Real, taken apart 4-0 in the Champions League semi-final, who are playing catch-up. How better to put United in their shadow than by equalling their 1999 Treble? That achievement for the ages had set United aside. Fifteen years after being dismissed as noisy neighbours, City are not just United’s equal, they are forging ahead.

Bigger than United, bigger than Real Madrid was the boast that got Al-Fahim sacked for being braggadocious in 2008. But he was not wrong. Just indiscreet. And he also forgot to add a massive asterisk: * subject to being cleared of 115 Premier League charges.

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