FA PREMIER LEAGUE: MANCHESTER CITY have lived in the shadow of their bigger and wealthier neighbours for longer than they will care to remember, but that all changed yesterday with the arrival of the United Arab Emirates royal family and a multi-billionaire described as the Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi.
This morning City find themselves not only the richest club in Manchester but perhaps the world. The announcement yesterday that Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand, had sold the club to Abu Dhabi United Group (Adug) is expected to be followed by the biggest injection of cash into a football club since Roman Abramovich changed the face of the English game with his €740 million-plus investment in Chelsea.
Abramovich's wealth saw Chelsea overtake Manchester United and Real Madrid on the global rich list. Now City, a club that has been synonymous with glorious failure, can claim the title as their own, boasting the kind of wealth that led one source to say of the deal: "Imagine Chelsea, then times it by at least 10."
The club wasted little time in flexing their financial muscle yesterday, tabling almost €123.3 million in bids for new players, including an audacious attempt to snatch the Tottenham Hotspur forward Dimitar Berbatov from United's near-certain grasp.
Adug is fronted by Sulaiman al-Fahim, a 31-year-old businessman, property mogul and reality-television show host who is ranked 16th in Arabian Business Magazine's list of 100 most powerful Arabs, with a personal wealth said to be 10 times that of Abramovich.
Last night he insisted he had not put up the money himself but was a figurehead for members of the UAE's royal family, whose riches are even greater, and that the aim was to establish City among the world's elite clubs.
"Our goal is very simple - to make Manchester City the biggest club in the Premier League," said Fahim.
Fahim is the chief executive of Hydra Properties, a company set up only two years ago but which has already signed more than €1.2 billion worth of contracts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Mexico and around the world. Fahim, a flamboyant character, is regularly seen in Hollywood and was recently pictured alongside Leonardo di Caprio. Like Trump, he hosts his own reality show, The Hydra Executives, an Arabic version of The Apprentice.
The takeover has cost around €246.7 million and clears all City's outstanding debts. Thaksin had run into financial problems after the Thai courts froze €986.8 million of his assets; he may never recover that after fleeing his home country last month to avoid multi-million-pound corruption charges. Thaksin was deposed as prime minister in a 2006 coup and has been described as a "human rights abuser of the worst kind" by Amnesty International. His trial is taking place in his absence and the authorities in Thailand are investigating whether he can be extradited from London, where he is living in exile. In the meantime, he will relinquish his chairman's role at City but stay on as honorary president, with a minor stake.
The new owners do not have the same baggage although, for the time being, there is mystery as to precisely which members of the UAE royal family are involved.
Fahim said they had been contacted three weeks ago by a "mutual friend," having previously considered investing in three other Premier League clubs.
The new owners will attend City's next game. That will be against Chelsea on September 13th, when City's supporters plann to celebrate the new-found wealth by wearing Arab headgear.
• Guardian Service
