Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour has reaffirmed his commitment to the club with a fresh £100 million investment in its parent company, City Football Group (CFG), just weeks after an independent Premier League commission found the club guilty of the overwhelming majority of charges brought against it.
Filings at Companies House show that more than 11.3 million new shares were issued to raise the capital, all of them snapped up by Mansour’s investment vehicle, Newton Investment and Development.
According to The Mirror, the purchase marginally increases the Abu Dhabi royal’s already dominant holding in CFG, which now sits at around 81%.
CFG, the sprawling football conglomerate that also owns Girona, New York City FC, Palermo and Melbourne City among others, is currently valued at close to £6 billion.
A spokesperson for the group described the money as equity from its largest shareholder, underlining that it was not a loan.
A verdict City insists is “unsafe”
The timing of the investment is pointed. It arrives roughly two weeks after an independent Premier League commission ruled that City had broken financial regulations on 114 of the 115 charges levelled against it, following an investigation that stretched on for close to two years.
The club has always denied wrongdoing and formally lodged its appeal within the Premier League’s deadline, arguing the ruling “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe.”
Chief executive Ferran Soriano has been equally forthright in his response to staff, dismissing the finding as resting on “a single false accusation,” according to reports following the verdict.
The case will now be heard afresh by a separate independent commission, with the stakes considerable. Should the ruling ultimately stand, City face the possibility of heavy fines, points deductions or even relegation. Also, the Independent Football Regulator retains powers that could, in theory, force owners found guilty of serious wrongdoing to sell up within a set timeframe.
It is a prospect that has rippled beyond football and into politics. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has previously made clear he would be uneasy to see Mansour exit the city given the scale of Abu Dhabi’s wider investment in the region, though he has stressed he will not lobby the Premier League or the regulator over City’s treatment.
Steadying influence at the Etihad
The financial turbulence stands in contrast to life on the pitch, where the mood at the Etihad has been considerably calmer since Enzo Maresca succeeded Pep Guardiola as head coach over the summer.
Guardiola’s decade-long reign, which brought six Premier League titles and the club’s first Champions League, came to an end following his resignation, with Maresca returning after spells at Leicester City and Chelsea.
The Italian has made an eye-catching start, becoming the first manager in Premier League history to win each of his first seven matches in charge of a new club.
For a club navigating one of the most serious regulatory challenges in its history, stability on the pitch gives the boardroom and ownership group room to fight the legal battle without the added pressure of a faltering campaign.
