17th April 2026
April 17 – Manchester City owner and Abu Dhabi rule Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan faces calls for a ban from English football over links to genocide in Sudan.
NGO FairSquare has asked the UK government to investigate the links of City’s owners to the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who are accused of committing an ongoing genocide in the African country.
The United Arab Emirates has been accused of supplying weapons to the RSF. Both the US and UK have imposed sanctions on persons linked to the RSF, but not on Sheikh Mansour.
The rights group writes: “There is an abundance of evidence from multiple credible sources, including the UN Panel of Experts on the Sudan, that the UAE has been providing weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to the RSF since June 2023 in violation of a 2004 UN embargo. In doing so the UAE has fuelled the conflict, which has resulted in well-documented RSF atrocities in El-Fasher.”
“The UAE has allowed individuals and entities linked to the RSF to coordinate their activities from the UAE, apparently unimpeded.”
FairSquare point to Sheikh Mansour as “a senior and visible UAE interlocutor with the RSF before the outbreak of conflict in Sudan and since.”
The NGO has confirmed that both the Premier League and the Independent Football Regulator have been informed of a complaint lodged with the government on April 7, highlighting the UAE’s and Sheikh Mansour’s alleged central role in driving the conflict in Sudan.
Earlier this month, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the UAE where he met with Sheikh Mansour.
FairSqaire’s complaint precedes a major regulatory shift: beginning next month, the Independent Football Regulator will oversee all ownership vetting for English football.
Manchester City are still facing 115 charges of breaking the Premier League’s financial rules, eight years after the investigation began. It’s unclear when a verdict will be published.
City have been contacted for comment.
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