utdposts

📲📮Home of the latest @ManUtd News, Stories, Updates and associated content. Connect with us and the #MUFC community.

[utdposts @utdposts]

🚨✅ JUST IN - IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Manchester United will open the doors of Old Trafford for the Warm Hub evenings as part of an initiative from the club and @MU_Foundation. 👏

The stadium will provide the option of a space to stay warm, chat, have a hot drink and some snacks.

The area will be available to everyone*, free of charge, every Monday* in December and January from 17:00PM to 20:00PM GMT. #MUFC

*Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian over the age of 16.

**The last warm hub evening in December will be on Monday 18, resuming again on 8 January until 29 January.

@ManUtd

[The Swedish Rumble 🔰 @SwedishRumble]

Abu Dhabi are experts on making high profile investments which directly engage and empower holders of power.

In reality, AD’s investment in the UK are just tiny. A fairly small country like Portugal invest twice as much as UAE in the UK economy.

The difference is just in how the investments are made. On one hand, you have like a pension fund from Portugal investing money all over the globe including in UK businesses, which develops the country. On the other hand, you have some Sheik who will want much better terms than local businesses to make an investment — but are willing to venture into high profile projects which are tailormade after what some politician want and that will create photo ops.

I am personally a bit skeptical of the later type of investments. But it’s not my area of expertise. But I can guarantee that a complete break between the relationships between the UAE and the UK would have a completely insignificant impact on the UK economy. It represent 0.4% of total Foreign Direct Investments.

For some politicians who want attention and photo ops — the impact can of course be bigger.

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

Watch this.

[Telegraph Football @TeleFootball]

UAE threatens Burnham over Man City: We’ll pull billions out of UK

Read this front page story here ⬇️
https://t.co/uw1DdVdwSr

[Daily Mail Sport @MailSport]

I spent years exposing Man City's cheating while their plutocratic regime believed they could get away with it all. While my wife lay dying, these are the threats, ugly tactics and intimidation the club and their fans used against me, writes NICK HARRIS https://t.co/lfYEBvO5S4

[Alex Wickham @alexwickham]

**EXCLUSIVE**

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak met a senior UK government minister to discuss the UAE’s investments in Britain just days before the club’s guilty verdicts were announced.

Al Mubarak asked to meet Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds on 14 September in his capacity as CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, sources tell Bloomberg.

The pair held a private meeting in Downing Street on that date, the people said. Al Mubarak talked about current and future UAE investment in Britain, they said.

The conversation covered the full range of the relationship including defence, security, intelligence and trade, they said.

Eleven days later, on 25 September, the Athletic reported Man City had been found guilty of breaking Premier League rules.

On 29 September, the Premier League confirmed Manchester City had been found guilty of artificially boosting its balance sheet by more than £900 million.

The fact of the meeting so close to the verdict will raise further questions about the UK government’s handling of the case.

Andy Burnham has faced criticism, including from his own ministers and officials, after he publicly suggested Man City’s Abu Dhabi owners should not be disqualified from running the club because of the investment they bring to Britain.

Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Emirati officials have warned the UK government that the severity of the ruling could undermine their appetite for future grand-scale commitments in Britain.

https://t.co/kEZiAWiFEV

[James Ducker @TelegraphDucker]

The commission's findings on #MCFC's illciit activity between 2009 and 2018 have rocked English football.

But awkward questions remain - what about their commerical deals and accounting post 2018?

https://t.co/egmFQA9Mhq

[The Swedish Rumble 🔰 @SwedishRumble]

🚨💣This is something else. Read this.

Ferran Soriano, CEO of Man City. But he is also the guy who represents English club football in Europe.

He was vice president of Barça during 2003-2008. During this exact time (it’s Laporta’s first tenure) — Barça’s notorious payments to the — then CURRENT — VP of the referee organization, Negreira, increased significantly, from about €100k per year to €500k per year. The payments are not denied, they are not a rumor. Everything has been exposed. Barca officials withdrew the money in cash from one bank, walked over the street to another bank and deposited it on accounts controlled by Negreira. Untraceable — until Negreira lost it when Barça stopped paying him and started to black mail them. A ton of traces was left. During a tax audit — everything was uncovered.

From Barca’s POV, it’s like say Chelsea had paid Howard Webb €700,000 a year under the table. Barça claimed that they paid Negreira to write reports on refs and record games on VHS from the Euros and the World Cups. No coach have ever seen any ref reports. It will have no consequence in Spain. To get a sporting sanction for bribing a ref — it must be discovered within 36 months (absurdly short). Laporta has explained that Barca was just paying for what Real got for free — ie “fair” refereeing. It’s funny, because when you add up like red cards received/given — Barca had +43 and Real -5 (2003-2018).

Did Soriano know of this? He was Laporta’s closest guy. Responsible for finances. But just to be clear — there is no evidence of it.

That is just the start of it. Soriano left Barça involved in a big spy scandal which led to him being prosecuted in court. Soriano had allegedly engaged a security firm to spy on people to find leaks from the Barca organization. He was cleared of the charges. It’s funny, plenty of Laporta’s pals are prosecuted in court for crimes, but never convicted by the Catalonian courts.

So what happens next, there is a 3 year gap after leaving Barca accused of crimes and joining City. Was he occupied by the court proceedings?

Nope, Ferran Soriano became the chairman of Spanair. A top job. Three years later — Spanair was no longer. Spain was an airline shorter. It went bankrupt. New court proceedings followed. Ferran Soriano was ordered to pay a €10.8m to creditors and he was disqualified as acting as a director for any company. Both of which he later was acquitted on appeal.

So he goes to City and becomes one of the main persons in Project Longbow (the plan to fake sponsor income). City gets fined by UEFA, in steps Ferran Soriano and makes a deal with Gianni Infantino (circumventing the UEFA body that was in charge of the proceeding). Infantino always knew how to make friends and gain favors.

Since Man City have been the best English club in Europe, they got to nominate England’s representative at the European Club Association (ECA) — the most powerful organization next to UEFA, with whom UEFA cooperates very closely regarding club football. It is one of the most powerful roles in football.

At a recent meeting in Copenhagen with the ECA, Ferran Soriano in relation to City’s being convicted of 114 charges, took time to declare that “it has taken eight years to reach this point” for the Premier League, and that “it will still take much more time” before anything is final.

City, the club he has been a CEO for, for over a decade, was just found guilty of 114 of 115 charges.

Can anyone tell me why the heck this guy is representing English football in Europe? He hasn’t been convicted of anything — but honestly, is he suitable? What other prominent positions in football are held by City nominees like this?

@Grok Please let me know if I got any facts wrong in this text. 👇

[utdposts @utdposts]

@CharelMafoua It's like he presses square instead of circle.

[utdposts @utdposts]

@TheFergusonWay you got a stream link?

[utdposts @utdposts]

@Mo_utdred That didn't even happen - it's edited.

[Martyn Ziegler @martynziegler]

Man City rivals fear political pressure will be brought over the 115 charges - Govt has refused to reveal details of talks with UAE over the issue

https://t.co/4TQsof4Gef

[utdposts @utdposts]

@SkySportsNews "115."

[utdposts @utdposts]

"115." #ManCity

[Daily Mail Sport @MailSport]

If Manchester City win this case we might as well move Premier League headquarters to the Etihad, writes OLIVER HOLT https://t.co/EaOMy5BnOr

[Jimmy McBride @jimmymcbride1]

Man City know they’re done for, all the executives are jumping ship, the managers already said he’s going, KdB making noises about joining the Saudi league & the only ally they’ve got is the other state owned club Newcastle United

Let’s hope this is the end & not the beginning

[Andy Mitten @AndyMitten]

Would you keep Erik ten Hag as Manchester United manager?

[utdposts @utdposts]

Someone please photoshop another right arm on Guardiola holding up "115."

[utdposts @utdposts]

Before I renew.. Are we entitled to a full refund on our season tickets if Southgate becomes manager? #MUFC

[The Swedish Rumble 🔰 @SwedishRumble]

🚨🚨🚨Very remarkable that the @FA_PGMOL selects Michael Oliver for the FA Cup Final -- despite it appearing to be a possible breach of the FA's "Regulations for the Registration and Control of Referees".

🔺A referee has an obligation to decline an appointment if he has a "material interest" conflicting with his duties.

🔺Does Michael Oliver have a material conflict of interest? Oliver has -- this season -- accepted what reportedly was a well paid assignment from Manchester City's owner.

Is this material? A Premier League referee can of course not be on the payroll of an owner of a PL club playing in one of the game he is reffing. An auditor who works as a referee on the side and has a client that is a football club, cannot ref a game involving that team. It is different if your cousin's son play for a team or something like that, in which case it could be argued that it is not material. But it speaks for itself in relation to the Premier League, that a ref can't work for one of the owner of a PL club.

What was Oliver paid for his work in the UAE? Say that it was first class tickets to Abu Dahbi, three nights in a five star hotel, and £5,000 for "90 minutes of work" -- I cannot see how anyone could find that it is not 'material'. What would the threshold be, "you can accept payments from an owner of a PL club as long as it is under £50k?"

If Michael Oliver becomes the public enemy No 1 of City after awarding three incorrect penalties to MUFC -- does he get another offer to call games for the UAE Pro League next season?

So what is the problem? Is there any question-marks if the UAE Pro League is controlled by City's owner, Sheikh Mansour, who is the deputy prime minister of the UAE and a core member of the ruling royal family?

It is generally stated that it is not possible in the UAE to separate different parts of government even from the private business sector. KC Murray Rosen -- who is the chair of the PL's Independent Disciplinary Commission handling the City Case -- could for this reason never accept an assignment from the UAE to say prepare a draft for a new constitution or whatever, while being in charge of the City case. It wouldn't even be considered for three seconds. A government official in charge of a large multi billion public procurement for which Sheik Mansour have made a bid, could never accept well paid side job from the UAE while considering Mansour's bid, without facing grave risk of breaking the law. It is unthinkable that this would be accepted. I am not an expert on English law, if anyone familiar with these issues in the UK think I am on thin ice here, let me know.

🔺So why did Howard Webb tell Michael Oliver that he could take the job? And does it matter? First of all, I think Howard Webb should answer this question. Maybe he didn't know that City was owned by the deputy prime minister of the UAE? He was a good ref, maybe geography, politics or whatever isn't one of his strengths... I just cannot imagine that Webb even would consider telling a Michael Oliver that it was OK for him to say accept an offer of 20k from the Glazers to fly to Florida and call a charity game arranged by the Glazers.

But I don't know know the reasons for why he accepted it, I am just speculating.

But does it matter if Webb gave a green light? Of course not, it is completely irrelevant, at least as far as I can tell. Michael Oliver must comply with the FA's fundamental rules for referees. Howard Webb appears to have zero authority to set aside these rules.

And I have said it before, I am very surprised that a PL ref even would consider accepting an assignment from the owner of a PL club. How can they not realize how problematic that is?

🔺But surely, Michael Oliver -- will -- be impartial? But it is completely irrelevant. This is because the Conflict of Interest rules does not exist exclusively to ensure impartiality, it is deemed to be just as important to safe guard the integrity of the game. Let say that it came out that Howard Webb while being a PL ref had been paid 5m by J.P. McManus for a side gig while McManus was the majority owner of Manchester United -- it would significantly damage the integrity of the game, regardless if Webb called every game in an impartial way and never felt any obligation towards Mr. McManus.

🔺From my viewpoint, this is clearly a very problematic issue and I have to say that I think that it is remarkable that the the PGMOL -- in light of the above -- still appoints Michael Oliver to referee the FA Cup Final when Manchester City is playing in it.

[utdposts @utdposts]

@SwedishRumble - Didn't give blatant penalty against City in semi for Grealish handball.

- Instructed Paul Tierney to look at the VAR monitor for a "foul" on Rodri in Manchester Derby at Old Trafford this season.

It's just so suspect.