The U.K. government has made clear it will not stand in the way if Manchester City\u2019s ownership is ultimately forced to sell the club, should the Independent Football Regulator decide that is the correct outcome in the case.<\/p>\n
That position sits in contrast to the more cautious tone of Andy Burnham, who has found it difficult to condemn Manchester City. In his former role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, a post he held from 2017 until this past summer, he welcomed the wider impact of Abu Dhabi investment across the city, not only at the club itself.<\/p>\n
Even after the guilty verdict, which referred to \u201csham\u201d contracts used to disguise owner investment and increase spending beyond the rules, Burnham said he would be \u201creally concerned\u201d if Sheikh Mansour were required to sell. \u201cThey\u2019ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and building Manchester City into the global force that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government, however, is taking a firmer line. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said investors are welcome but must accept their responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be crystal clear that, whilst we are really grateful to investors who come from all over the world to invest in our clubs and help to ensure their viability and their success, they are custodians, both of their clubs and of the game,\u201d she told talkSPORT.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a responsibility to play by the rules and uphold the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case is now moving to appeal, and the government says it will not interfere. Nandy said the focus must remain on protecting integrity and putting supporters first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the right and proper role governing, it\u2019s to protect that integrity and put the fans back at the heart of football where they belong,\u201d she added. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve done with the Football Governance Act and the Independent Regulator, and it’s now for football to step up and make a determination in this case, and really meet this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that if the allegations are upheld, the Independent Football Regulator could investigate ownership and, in the most serious scenario, compel the owners to go if they are not fit to run the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not there yet. It’s absolutely right that Manchester City get the right to defend themselves and they do strongly refute the allegations. But in the event that they do not believe that a club is in safe hands, we\u2019ve fought tooth and nail to give the Independent Regulator the power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite concern that relations between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates could influence the process, there appears to be little appetite for any intervention. The regulator, led by David Kogan, is said to be confident there will be no interference and will use the full extent of its power if needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.K. government says the regulator must decide Manchester City\u2019s fate, without political interference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[1162,59],"class_list":["post-21782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-analytics","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}