Manchester City have been found overwhelmingly guilty by an independent panel, but are intent on appealing with their evidence
Sheikh Mansour, Owner of Manchester City (middle) and Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (left)
Sheikh Mansour, Owner of Manchester City (middle) and Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (left)(Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
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Manchester City have been found astonishingly guilty in the 115 case by an independent panel. The three experts found the club guilty of more than 100 Premier League breaches, including the most serious allegations of disguising money from the owners as sponsorships.
It could hardly have been worse for the club, yet there was one significant redaction from the damning verdict that appeared to give a way out for one very important individual. On page 19 of the report, it states: "There was no direct evidence that [REDACTED] was aware of the Disguised Funding Scheme or authorised the operation of the Disguised Funding Scheme. We therefore concluded that the Disguised Funding Scheme was operated without [REDACTED'S] knowledge."
There are redactions throughout the report and missing appendices containing key evidence and arguments, so there is a lot of unknowns still from the 11-week hearing and subsequent decision. However, expert commentators believe the text in the above sentence to be HHSM - His Highness Sheikh Mansour.
Assuming this to be the case, it would be significant and interesting. The idea that City's owner was unaware that £900m of the money he was in charge of had disappeared feels hard to believe, but on the other side you probably need to be nine hundred million per cent sure in your evidence before accusing a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family of such offences.
Whatever the outcome, absolving City's owner is a decision that would appear to work for everyone. The Premier League can have more luck in a reckoning over why they approved the Abu Dhabi United Group as fit and proper in the first place, with enough senior individuals named in driving City's wrongdoing that the blame could fall on their shoulders.
It may seem implausible that there wasn't leading agency from, at the very least, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, but it is also amazing what people can be prepared to accept for the benefit of international relations and trade. For City's owner at the very least, the verdict appears to offer an out that would limit the damage in his direction even if it is significant elsewhere at the club.
It is intriguing at the very least, then, that the ownership group - for who City has been used to build their reputation around the world alongside other business ventures - are not taking that opportunity. Instead, the club's appeal could even involve Mansour as the strategy focuses on their argument that the money for the sponsorship payments in fact came from the Abu Dhabi government.
City's insistence on their innocence is certainly striking in the face of the verdict, as well as expecting how difficult it will be to overturn on appeal. That decision feels even more significant given it feels like there was an opportunity for the panel's findings to be dealt with very differently in Abu Dhabi.