The British government admitted to the newspaper The athlete The sanctions applied to Manchester City were discussed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.
The English Premier League accused the club of committing 115 financial violations between 2009 and 2018, because it did not provide correct information about the origin of the sponsorship, accusations that Manchester City always denied.
In this sense, the aforementioned newspaper requested correspondence related to this punishment, which was exchanged between the Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Abu Dhabi, a request that was rejected.
Although The Athletic’s request was supported by the Freedom of Information Act, the State Department acknowledged the existence of correspondence, but refused to provide the requested information.
The government justified the rejection it submitted to the newspaper by saying that revealing the aforementioned data could “harm bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates,” but the newspaper appealed the decision.
Manchester City also refused to respond to the newspaper about why the government was concerned about harming relations with the Emirates, if the club was not owned by the emirate, but it did not receive any response.
The English Premier League also remained silent when asked whether there had been requests for information from the government in relation to the accusations against Manchester City.
The authorities’ refusal to provide more information related to this issue raises doubts about the alleged links between the UAE and Manchester City.
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