New findings from DER SPIEGEL and the journalism network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) show that the holding company behind Manchester City appears to have violated the rules by paying millions in fees to player agents and also orchestrated a secret, triangular deal to sign an underage player. Numerous documents provided by the whistleblower platform Football Leaks provide a deep look at the club’s inner workings and at government agencies in Abu Dhabi – sufficient to inflict a few chinks in ManCity’s juridical defensive wall. Like the Qataris’ investment in Paris Saint-Germain and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s purchase of Newcastle United, the billions of euros spent on ManCity by UAE is primarily, it would seem, an attempt to use success on the football pitch to improve the country’s image. The UAE, after all, allows no political dissent at home, disregards human rights and is under suspicion of having committed war crimes in the ongoing violence in Yemen – which the UAE denies. The team owners are apparently willing to pay any price necessary to appear in the best possible light on the stage of elite football. And it looks suspiciously as though one of the richest nations in the world is financing the team’s operations, using hidden payments to circumvent spending rules.

In 2020, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) banned the team from the Champions League for two years due to revelations published by DER SPIEGEL. Manchester City, represented by almost a dozen top lawyers, appealed the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). UEFA lost the case, despite the existence of clear evidence for the questionable business practices employed by Manchester City.

Money from the Government The company Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development (ADUG) belongs to Sheikh Mansour and was the official owner of Manchester City from 2008 until last year, when the team was transferred to a different company owned by Mansour. Officials in UAE have consistently insisted that ADUG is a purely private company and Mansour’s involvement with the English team is a completely private investment. In testimony before CAS, a legal representative of the Finance Ministry in Abu Dhabi said that ADUG "is completely unconnected" to the government of UAE or the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Research in the Football Leaks documents has revealed, however, that payments from ADUG to the club were cleared by a state office. According to internal documents, the Executive Affairs Authority (EAA), an Abu Dhabi government agency focused on providing strategic guidance, obviously manages the accounts belonging to ADUG. Agency chief Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the de facto prime minister of Abu Dhabi, is head of the state investment fund and is also chairman of Manchester City. He apparently approved money flows that were controlled by the government before ending up in the accounts of the football team. Payment requests for agent fees were sent to the EAA’s general counsel, with ManCity sending an invoice for the sponsorship company Etisalat to Omar Awad, the finance director of the government agency. "Omar works for the EAA and is very important and helpful in facilitating our financial administration of City," wrote Simon Pearce, a club board member, to a colleague in January 2014.

Were such a situation to play out in Germany, it might look like this: The state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn would be FC Bayern Munich's main sponsor, but the club would send invoices for sponsorship money to a senior official in the Chancellery before then writing emails praising the financial services provided to the club by the government official. A rather absurd idea.

At Manchester City, the dividing lines between an authoritarian government and a private football club have become almost indistinguishable. Neither Manchester City nor the EAA officials responded to a DER SPIEGEL request for comment. The new revelations could create significant problems for the Premier League leaders. Already, the English football league has spent years investigating Manchester City, largely out of the public eye. According to information obtained by DER SPIEGEL, that investigation is focusing on three primary allegations.

Underage players were allegedly pressured to sign contracts with Manchester City through monetary payments, in violation of the rules.

Club sponsors in Abu Dhabi are suspected of having provided only a portion of their payments to the club themselves, with the majority apparently coming from Sheikh Mansour himself.

Roberto Mancini, who is currently the trainer for the Italian national team but who spent the years from 2009 to 2013 as the trainer for ManCity, is thought to have received a significant portion of his compensation secretly by way of a fictitious consultancy contract.

The Premier League declined to answer questions about its investigation. Past requests for comment sent by DER SPIEGEL to Manchester City have consistently been responded to with a statement that does not address specific issues, and which claims that material and quotes from the Football Leaks trove has been taken out of context. In response to this blanket claim, DER SPIEGEL has chosen to provide comprehensive and contextual information for each of the allegations.

Evidence of Manchester City's close ties with the Abu Dhabi government can be found in this file:1. Dealing with Underage Players There are special rules in place for the protection of underage football talents. Clubs are forbidden, for example, from transferring players under the age of 16 across international borders. And they are not allowed to provide monetary payments to underage players, their parents or their agents.

Numerous clubs have spent years routinely ignoring these provisions. Indeed, FIFA even temporarily banned FC Chelsea and Real Madrid from the transfer market due to such transgressions. Manchester City has had to pay both the English Football Association and FIFA at least 300,000 pounds for violations of the youth protection rules.

DER SPIEGEL has in the past reported on hidden payments apparently made by Manchester City to the agent of Jadon Sancho, who was 14 years old at the time. In a case that has thus far flown under the radar, the club transferred 14-year-old Brahim Díaz from Málaga CF to Manchester in late 2013 and apparently trained him in their academy for two years before being officially allowed to register him.When a player is transferred, training compensation is normally due for the original home club. However, Manchester City brought Brahim to England at a time when no official transfer was possible. Accordingly, it would likely have been difficult for the club to explain why they transferred money to the club in Málaga.

In club leadership emails, it becomes clear that ADUG was prepared to take care of the training compensation relating to Brahim’s transfer, but apparently wanted to conceal its involvement. According to the documents, the Sheikh’s company agreed to pay a 360,000-euro bill owed to Brahim’s youth club through an intermediary agency. The documentation indicates that ADUG paid the money to a company in Barcelona, which then forwarded the money onward to the Spanish club. Apparently Manchester City, like many other top clubs, used creative tricks to circumvent the rules protecting minors.

The internal documents also show that Brahim’s case wasn’t the only instance in which ADUG jumped in to cover the bills. Between 2010 and 2015, the Sheikh’s company apparently paid at least 4 million euros and 4 million pounds to a company belonging to the agent of club legend Yaya Touré. According to the emails, the payments were apparently cleared by ManCity CEO Ferran Soriano and team chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. The board member Simon Pearce apparently guided the payments from the Abu Dhabi government agency.

None of the clubs, companies and managers involved in these deals have provided comment on the allegations.