Al-Mubarak: the tightrope walker who made a rare misstep over City charges

Club chair helped to make Abu Dhabi a world power, but his stance on financial misdeeds is embarrassing the royal family and his next task may be to sell up

In fighting to the end, al-Mubarak appears to have broken a cardinal law of diplomacy

9 Oct 2026 - The Guardian

Rob Draper

No one better understands the precarious tightrope Abu Dhabi walks when it tries to balance its relationships with western Europe while weighing the complex geopolitics of the Gulf region than Manchester City’s chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak. He was eight when his father, ambassador Khalifa Ahmed Abdel Aziz al-Mubarak, left the family’s Paris apartment for work on 9 February 1984, and was assassinated on the street by a Palestinian terrorist.

And no one outside the emirate’s royal family could be more wrapped up in the project of making and maintaining Abu Dhabi as a significant and secure world power and the dominant member of the United Arab Emirates, a nation state still only 55 years old. His paternal grandfather, Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz al-Mubarak, was chair of Abu Dhabi’s Sharia judicial department and senior adviser to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE. As such, Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz was the James Madison of the UAE (the founding father, not the Spurs player) in that he crafted the Islamic legal framework of the new nation in the 1970s.

Khaldoon’s father was assassinated by a group led by Abu Nidal which, according to the CIA, was “the most dangerous and effective of all terrorist groups [and] the best organized of the radical Palestinian terrorist groups” before the emergence of Hamas. The murder was justified in a phone call saying that the UAE “had expelled Palestinian and Arab residents and was linked with American imperialism”. In essence, they were accused of being too soft on the west, not radical enough for Palestinians.

Both al-Mubarak’s grandfather and father have streets named after them in Abu Dhabi, with his father honoured as a martyr of the state. It is fair to say the City chair has honoured the family tradition as chief adviser to the UAE president and Abu Dhabi ruler, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, for whom he first worked after graduating from Tufts University in Massachusetts. Given his father’s martyrdom, the royal family is said to have looked out for al-Mubarak as a quasi-adopted son. According to a source in the Financial Times, al-Mubarak is “diplomatically in charge of the UK file as well as the China file … and he’s the main liaison with the US administration” and has diplomatic immunity in the UK. That said, he appears to have made a rare misstep with his belligerent tone on Manchester City.

According to Manchester City’s lawyer Simon Cliff, it was al-Mubarak who dictated the aggressive, confrontational stance City have taken with football authorities. As far back as 2014, when City were fighting their first Uefa charge, Cliff wrote, according to leaked documents first published by Der Spiegel: “Khaldoon says he would rather spend £30m on the 50 best lawyers in the world and sue them [Uefa] for the next ten years than agree a financial penalty.”

He backed down on that occasion, along with the co-accused Paris Saint-Germain, both clubs agreeing a small fine and minor transfer restrictions with Uefa. It is extraordinary that City kept fighting thereafter, whereas the Qatar-owned PSG accepted their punishment, cosied up to Uefa – with the club’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, becoming chair of the European Club Association (now European Football Clubs) and chief opponent of the breakaway Super League – and built the most exciting and successful team in Europe, bringing admiration for the Qatari brand from observers willing to ignore human rights abuses. Al-Mubarak, in fighting to the end with City, appears to have broken an ambassador’s cardinal law: don’t embarrass your boss. Should City lose their appeal against an independent commission’s finding that they were guilty of multiple breaches of financial rules, al-Mubarak may be instructed to organise the sale of the club.

“I’m sure that’s the case with Man City,” says Christopher Davidson, author of Abu Dhabi, Oil and Beyond. “More than that, I’ve been told by some [in Abu Dhabi] that it will be the case. I can’t see any reason why they would stick around and try to rebuild the reputation after this.

It’s embarrassing the royal family now. I can’t think of any example where things have gone wrong [for Abu Dhabi] and they’ve just kept plugging money into it. I think they’ll play out the appeal – nothing to lose with that – but once that’s done, it’s all about how to get out before the owners are declared unfit, a far worse outcome. There are very clever people involved in Abu Dhabi who I’m led to believe will very strongly counsel this needs to be a quiet retreat because the longer they stay in the game, the more damaging it is and it will unravel any kind of soft power Abu Dhabi managed to gain.”

In June al-Mubarak said “these sorts of jewels, you don’t sell” and that there was “only intention to keep growing this”. As for the wider threat to UK-Abu Dhabi relations, Davidson believes it is overstated. “Some of the reporting perhaps has portrayed Abu Dhabi as a bit monolithic. There are entire big and growing sections of Abu Dhabi state economy that are outside al-Mubarak’s remit. Some of Abu Dhabi’s biggest investments in the UK in recent years have been in renewable energy and the windfarms of Scotland from Masdar energy, which is chaired by Sultan al-Jaber, who’s another key lieutenant of the ruler.”

Davidson also cites the International Holding Company (IHC), which has huge biotech, shipping, healthcare and retail investments in the UK, including the Ivy restaurants, and is chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi and brother of the UAE president and Sheikh Mansour. “It’s inconceivable that these investments would be withdrawn,” says Davidson.

In May this year the UK signed a free trade agreement with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE which it said could be worth £3.7bn a year to the UK economy. “The UAE was a major force behind getting that and it was a major accomplishment on both sides, so there’s no prospect any of this is going to be interfered with,” Davidson says.

Al-Mubarak will probably emerge from this fiasco largely untarnished, because City are a tiny part of his portfolio. “He can’t possibly have known what’s going on in every part of his empire,” says Davidson. “My gut feeling would be that it’s the layers below him. It’s all about your legal counsel. I think the Qataris had very clever people working for them. This has been a case of poor advice being given to the senior Emiratis involved, a misreading of UK politics and a misreading of the Premier League and its bigger picture as a rules-based institution.

“I think the statements al-Mubarak has made, including the one early last summer that ‘We will not sell’, are the product of poor advice delivered to him and ultimately to Sheikh Mansour. It may be important to us in the UK but Man City has been a peripheral project [for Abu Dhabi].”

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IAN WALTON/AP

Manchester City supporters say they will continue to back the club

‘I can’t give those memories back’

Fans on past, present and future Supporters are experiencing various emotions as the team prepares to return to action, among them shock, anger, upset and all-out resistance. As told to Will Unwin

‘I trusted the club and believed every word 

they said in response to the charges, 

so this has hit hard’

9 Oct 2026 - The Guardian

Will Unwin

Nicola Schofield, City fan for more than 40 years

One of my (million) concerns, as someone who feels angry with the owners, is if the owners’ strategy causes a split in the fanbase. I think everyone wants to get behind the club and team, but this is different to the experience of a relegation of the type I experienced in the 90s. We all shared that, and we stood by the club down to League One and as we came back up. This threatens to be messier, with those who may want the owners out (which is its own minefield) to those who will back them all the way. I think ultimately all fans want to ensure our club still exists, but I do worry at divisions this could cause and that might be hard to heal.

Ben, season-ticket holder

I don’t think I have fully processed the news yet. I trusted the club completely and believed every word they said in response to the charges, so this has hit hard. I still think the FFP [financial fair play] rules aren’t fair and never have been. I know that won’t get much sympathy from other fans, and I understand why. Most of them have been waiting for this day for years. Whatever happens, nobody can take the last 15 years away from us. We lived every moment: [Sergio] Agüero in 2012, the centurions, the treble, Istanbul. Those memories are ours and no verdict changes that. Right now I just feel confused. One thing won’t change, though: whatever happens, I’ll still support the team.

James Blakey, fan for more than 40 years

I was 13 in 1999 when Paul Dickov scored a 95th-minute equaliser at Wembley to take the Second Division playoff final to extra time and Nicky Weaver’s heroics in the shootout saw us promoted. That was the first year I had a season ticket at Maine Road. When Agüero scored in the 93rd minute against QPR – 13 years later – I was in a pub in Manchester that was split 50-50 between us City fans and the United fans who seconds earlier believed they had won the title. The Dickov and Agüero goals are very alike: the elation, the sweetness, the togetherness and the pride in my club; the club that would always be there no matter what else changed in my life.

Now I know that the second of these moments, and so many more moments that followed, Istanbul included, would not have happened without my club cheating on a systemic, industrial scale. And I don’t know what to do with that. I can’t give those memories back. But I do know that the richest people in the world thinking that the rules don’t apply to them, that they can cheat and then arrogantly chuck endless money at the situation, has nothing to do with what I love about football, nothing to do with what I love about Manchester, nothing to do with what I love about my club and the glorious fans doing the conga in the aisles and the Poznan in the stands. I’m really sad.

David Mayor, season-ticket holder 

and attender of York away in 1998

I keep wondering, when (if) the dust finally settles, how it will feel as a fan. But we’ve gone through many changes in my 40 years supporting the club – relegations, stadium move, ownership, etc – and it ultimately reverts to the norm. You see the same faces and my dad’s still moaning about a wayward pass regardless of how the team’s playing. This last week has felt a serious danger to this. For a long time I’ve thought the game at the highest level was morally bankrupt so the actions of the club haven’t particularly bothered me. When they stated they were going to join a super league I thought I could walk away, but for whatever reason, maybe defiance in the face of what opposition fans are telling me I should do/feel, I can’t foresee that I will regardless of how it all ends.

Jon Ashley, 

Washington DC-based fan

Being outside Manchester – and the UK – definitely has a numbing effect when it comes to bad things happening to your football team. Part of me does feel betrayed by and angry at the City higher-ups who have clearly misled the fans for a long time, particularly when you look at the extent of the “sham”. But there remains a part of me that remembers the abject misery of being a City fan at school during the 1990s and 2000s and the seemingly impossible dream of one day seeing them compete for trophies. The severity and duration of City’s offences warrant significant punishment, but the verdict that it took this much sustained rulebreaking to prevent United, Arsenal and Liverpool adding to their own trophy cabinets is an indictment on the Premier League.

Chris Stalker, chair of New York Sky Blues, 

speaking in a personal capacity

At the New York Sky Blues we have close to 400 members and its caused a lot of discussion and debate. First around FFP, and the consensus is it needs challenging, not just by City but other clubs, too, such as Newcastle, Aston Villa and Everton, because the aim seems to be to maintain the status quo. We accept rules have been broken but there are legitimate concerns about why they exist. Second, the ownership maintains a lot of credit because when we travel to home matches, we see the transformation they have made in east Manchester. It is not just the stadium but the whole area has changed with the investment. They have also given many fans the best days of their lives. Never did I expect to see a better player than Colin Bell but I’ve got to witness David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne.

There is, however, a growing uneasiness with how we feel about the ownership. We have as a fan group invested a lot of trust in them and that looks unwarranted. A relationship with fans should be built on honesty and integrity and could be lost. We try to align our support for the club with our principles and values, carrying out charity work in New York, raising $25,000 (£19,000) last year for New York Common Pantry, which is a food bank. It reflects the work done by City supporters and strengthens the links through values and ethics. As Manchester City we won’t be defined by the owners. Owners come and go but we’re City till we die. So let’s act in solidarity and stand together.

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‘Damage for Premier League’

Glasner warns against delay in resolving financial doping case

9 Oct 2026 - The Guardian

Ben Fisher

Oliver Glasner has said Manchester City being found guilty of arranging “sham contracts” has damaged the Premier League brand globally and believes the integrity of the English top flight is under threat. The Nottingham Forest head coach said the league faces a job to repair its image and suggested supporters might switch off after City were found to have artificially inflated their income by more than £900m.

City have appealed against last week’s seismic judgment of an independent commission that they broke financial rules across a nineyear period. If City’s appeal fails, the panel could determine a range of sporting sanctions, including expulsion from the league and point deductions. Glasner said the case must be finalised “as soon as possible” to protect the competition’s integrity.

Glasner cited his experience of Crystal Palace being demoted from the Europa League at the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) last year for breaking Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules as an example of how legal processes can drag. “Let’s wait until the final verdict, but my wish is that this is quick,” Glasner said. “We didn’t know with Palace if we were in the Europa League or Conference League and then it was ‘you will hear on Thursday’ and that became Monday, because it was always delayed. Then we got the final verdict 10 days before the Conference League started.

“That’s why this must be [completed] as soon as possible. There is still damage for the Premier League ... It’s a big topic all over the world. The most important thing is the integrity of the league because as soon as the fans can’t trust it, they won’t watch.”

City deny wrongdoing and formally lodged an appeal last Thursday. “The club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe,” a City statement read.

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‘Players don’t care about noise’

Maresca and Haaland brush off City’s guilty verdict

Maresca and Haaland defiant in face of ‘noise’ engulfing club

9 Oct 2026 - The Guardian

Will Unwin

Enzo Maresca says his players “don’t care about the noise” surrounding Manchester City, while Erling Haaland has called for unity after the club were found guilty of serious breaches of Premier League financial rules. The manager and players reconvened yesterday after spending the international break apart when the news of the club’s predicament was made public.

City maintain their innocence and have launched an appeal against the ruling, but if that fails could face a severe punishment. In the meantime, the staff and players are showing a strong front as they prepare for their first game in three weeks when they face Liverpool on Sunday.

“I’m very calm to be honest,” Maresca told the club’s official website. “The club has been quite clear. We trust completely the club. We understand the noise but the focus for us is just what we can control and we can control just the football side.”

City have started life under Maresca with five straight Premier League wins and sit top of the table but onfield success has been overshadowed by off-field matters. Players have sought reassurance about the club’s future and were able were to sit down collectively for the first time since the news was announced, as they begin preparations for what is expected to be a fiery visit to Anfield.

“The feeling is fantastic,” said the Italian. “The players are excited for the next two games. They know their profession and they know that the noise is there but they don’t care too much about the noise.”

Haaland, meanwhile, has spoken of the need for everyone associated with City to unite in this difficult period for the embattled club.

“We have to stick together,” the striker told Sky Sports News. “We have to stay with each other, and we have to stay positive. No matter what happens in life, we always have to have a smile. So yeah: stick together, and enjoy the ride and smile.”