London faces a difficult test: a "dangerous" Emirati move over the Manchester City crisis

Matters are taking a diplomatic turn

The case of financial breaches attributed to Manchester City has spilled over into the diplomatic sphere, with the United Arab Emirates threatening to pull billions of pounds of investment out of the United Kingdom over the ruling against the club owned by an Emirati fund.

Britain's "Telegraph" reported that Abu Dhabi warned British Prime Minister Andy Burnham over the fallout from the case. City, meanwhile, are preparing to appeal against the decision of the Premier League's independent commission, which found the club guilty of 114 financial breaches between 2009 and 2018.

Burnham, the former Mayor of Greater Manchester, had voiced concern that the Emirates might decide to sell the club following the ruling. The British government later insisted that no team is "above the law".

The investments at risk are linked to private projects and investment funds through which the British government hopes to develop a technology hub stretching between Oxford and Cambridge, a project London bills as an ambitious bid to rival Silicon Valley.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the chairman of Manchester City, met Jonathan Reynolds, the Minister of State for Trade, two weeks before the Premier League announced the details of the case, the newspaper noted.

Al Mubarak already knew of the club's conviction at that point, the report added, even though the details had not yet been made public.

City's move to challenge the independent commission's decision opens a new phase in a dispute that began on sporting and legal grounds. Now its reach extends into the economic relations between the UAE and the United Kingdom.