@etihad Questions following your press release on, and threat of legal action over, “The Premier League's public communication of the [Independent] commission's findings”.
1) Documentary evidence of “the Disguised Funding Scheme” which the IC found Etihad to be a part of has been in the public domain since 2018. The Premier League charged Manchester City in 2023. Those charges were not heard until late 2024. As City's most prominent sponsor why did you not ask the club to be a witness at the IC?
2) What is the total quantum of Etihad's sponsorship deals with Manchester City since the airline entered its first commercial deal with the club ? Is it over £800million?
3) Is Etihad's position that all of the Etihad sponsorship income that Manchester City declared to the Premier League and UEFA was paid to City directly and entirely out of Etihad’s own funds? And that not a single penny came from Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ADUG or any Abu Dhabi government entity?
3) The IC states that Manchester City claimed “that AD Sponsors had from time to time applied for financial assistance from the AD Government towards their liability to pay the Recorded Sponsorship Fees. Such applications had been granted, and financial assistance had been provided to the AD Sponsors by the AD Government via the CPC. In each case the level of financial assistance provided by the AD Government to the relevant Sponsor had been in the amount that the PL wrongly contended represented a Tagged Sum from ADUG.”
Is it true that some of Etihad's sponsorship payments were funded by the Abu Dhabi Government via the Crown Prince's Court (CPC)?
4) If so, why did Etihad’s CEO testify to CAS as follows? ‘Neither [Mansour], nor his private investment vehicle ADUG, nor any entity on their behalf, has funded or reimbursed the sponsorship obligations of Etihad under the sponsorship agreements. The sponsorship obligations were paid out of Etihad’s own funds as described above. I was PCEO throughout the relevant period and I would have known if any arrangement had existed for the funding or reimbursement of the sponsorship fees paid by Etihad to MCFC, as alleged by UEFA, which I did not.'
5) Why did Etihad make the following submission to the US Government in 2015?
‘The assertion that the Abu Dhabi government paid for Etihad’s sponsorship of English Premier League football club Manchester City is equally false.’
6) Is Etihad’s objection to the published findings of the IC? Or is to the testimony and arguments made to the IC by your long-term commercial partners and/or your owners?
For many years, I considered the pitched legal battle between Manchester City and the Premier League a sporting and commercial disaster for the competition, with immense risk of damage to all parties.
Now that the Independent Commission has established City's guilt, and laid the scope of cheating to bare, my thinking has changed.
🔻Correctly and justly concluding the process presents a huge opportunity for both the League and the game.
A MASSIVE opportunity for the Premier League 👀
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@DuncanCastles@sportingintel@Transfersdotcom
"NOT EVERYBODY CAN GO." - MAJOR TRANSITION COMING BUT ARE YOU ABLE TO MAKE IT? [ONE SHOT ONLY]
Please pay attention when you watch this video. No adjustments will be made for anyone.
'For the City of London financiers David Rowland and his eldest son Jonathan, doing unusual deals with second-tier royals was par for the course.
David, son of a scrap-metal merchant and nicknamed “Spotty” in the City for having become a millionaire at just 23, was a friend and banker to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. He was also on good terms with Gulf potentates, including the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
So when the bosses at Manchester City — owned by the oil-rich emirate’s Sheikh Mansour — asked for their help with a scheme that would conceal the origins of money going into the club, they said yes.'
https://t.co/wao3gUT1OL
If you are in a committed relationship and you’re accepting gifts from other men. You are essentially signaling to both men you’re not loyal, faithful and you have a price. It’s extremely disrespectful to your partner. It’s obvious there was no father in your home.
Why older men prefer younger women, and why it's dangerous to date a women in her 30s who has been single for a while.
Sarah Fontenot from It's Giving Podcast
For insomniacs, the YouTube version of my interview on Saturday morning with @DuncanCastles. We dicuss: guilt or othewide of mcfc, punishment, Burnham, potential actions by regulators and mmuch more: https://t.co/hmlfkzZGbR
Understand that the punishment Manchester City faces from English football should the Abu Dhabi-owned club continue to escalate its conflict with the Premier League include:
🔻Expulsion from the League
🔻The EFL declining to grant City admission to any of its divisions
🔻Removal of City owners, directors and executives
‘Organised and Clear’ - Sham City Transfers Podcast special with Nick Harris.
🔻UK’s greatest sporting scandal
🔻Abu Dhabi’s ‘irrefutable evidence’
🔻City’s guilt an opportunity for the Premier League
🔻Manchester City headed to National League, Abu Dhabi removed as owners? What should the punishment be?
🔻Burnham’s repeated errors
🔻How Abu Dhabi lean on PMs
🔻City new defence: The Crown Prince’s Court
🔻£1bn+ damages case?
🔻HMRC monitoring City
🔻Guardiola’s stained legacy
🔻Why UEFA lost at CAS
🔻Rui Pinto + Villain
https://t.co/yiQyLkXQRE