Dubai Royal Family interest in United

Manchesters Finest

Dubai and Abu Dhabi always been rivals.

From the times, see bottom paragraph.

Apologies if this has been commented on before

Abu Dhabi: the Sheikh's real goal
Manchester City’s sale to a desert prince looks like a rich man acquiring an expensive plaything. But it is actually about turning a nation that has sat in Dubai’s shadow into a world player
David Parsley in Abu Dhabi and Abul Taher

If any venue is an appropriate place to spend £200m in half a day, it is the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi. One of the world’s few seven-star hotels, it was said on its opening in 2005 to have cost £2 billion to build. The central lobby has a dome twice the size of St Paul’s Cathedral and guests can literally feel the glitz. Scratch an ornate marble pillar in the lobby and you are likely to find gold leaf stuck under your fingernails.

It was here, in one of the £6,000-a-night suites last Monday, that the deal was concluded between Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister, and Sulaiman Al Fahim, the representative of the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, for the sale of Manchester City football club.

Thaksin had had his assets frozen by the authorities in his homeland, where he is wanted on corruption charges, and needed to sell the Premier League club quickly. Fahim, acting on behalf of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the half-brother of Abu Dhabi’s ruler, was happy to oblige. The two parties had first talked about the deal only three weeks earlier, but Thaksin knew the sheikh was serious – and, emphatically, that he had the money.

“By the time we met everybody was ready to do a deal, but we had different views on how to do it,” said Fahim last week. “We got there in the end, but it took around 13 hours. They got what they wanted and we got what we wanted.”
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And how. Within hours of the deal being agreed, City, one of the Premier League’s middle-ranking teams, were breaking the British transfer record to snatch the Real Madrid star Robinho from under the noses of Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea, who had been courting him all summer, for £32.5m.

Not only that but City also attempted to muscle in on the deal that was taking Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgarian who is one of the best strikers in the game, from Tottenham Hotspur to their more glamorous neighbours Manchester United. City failed but it was clear there was a new big spender in town. Indeed, there were suggestions that the club would mount an audacious £135m bid for Cristiano Ronaldo, the Manchester United player who is world football’s hottest property.

Manchester City fans could not hide their delight, some predictably donning the traditional Arab disdashas to show solidarity with their club’s new proprietor who, it was claimed, was the Premier League’s first trillionaire owner.

While that is true only in dollar terms and only if you count the wealth of Abu Dhabi as a whole as belonging to Mansour, the impression was, nevertheless, that the national sport had once again been reduced to a rich man’s plaything. It seemed to rank alongside the showy Arab purchases of British institutions such as Madame Tussauds, the QE2 and Chelsea Barracks.

However, on closer inspection there is much more to this transfer of cash from the Middle East’s oilfields to English playing fields. It is part of a battle for the future of the region after the oil runs out and also of a competition between two city states that is a match for anything seen in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries. UNTIL the middle of the 20th century, the economy of Abu Dhabi was sustained by camel herding, growing dates and vegetables, fishing and pearl diving. Poverty was widespread. Most of the population lived in homes constructed from palm trees; the wealthy lived in mud huts.

The discovery of oil in 1958 changed everything. Abu Dhabi found that it was sitting on 9% of the world’s prime energy supply. The money flowed with the black gold. The first concrete buildings began to appear and in 1961 the city built its first paved road. Independence from Britain, of which it had been a protectorate since 1892, followed in 1971.

The surge in oil prices since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 has seen the emirate’s fortunes soar. The price of a barrel leapt from about $20 to a peak of $150, although it has since sunk back to nearer $100. Analysts estimate that every time the oil price rises by $1, Abu Dhabi gains to the tune of $500m a year.

In an absolute monarchy where the ruling family control almost every aspect of the business environment, all that money flows to them. Indeed, last month Forbes magazine reported that the current ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the second richest monarch in the world with personal wealth of $23 billion. Mansour has a personal fortune that also runs into the billions.

A more accurate impression of the wealth of the country is given by its so-called sovereign wealth fund. These are the pools of money gathered by nations in order to secure the future wealth of their people by making overseas investments. Predominantly they are the preserve of oil-rich countries – and Abu Dhabi has the biggest of them all. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is understood to have a staggering $1 trillion to invest.

The credit crunch that has hobbled western economies has meant that there have been plenty of opportunities to buy assets at knockdown prices. Last year the ADIA took a 4.9% share in Citigroup, the world’s biggest bank.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Company, ADIA’s sister business, grabbed its own slice of American pie with its recent purchase of the Chrysler building in New York. Another fund, the Mubadala Development Company, owns 10% of General Electric and 5% of the Ferrari motor racing team and is understood to be keen on buying Gatwick and Stansted airports.

“These funds, backed with the money of the royal family, do not just have billions to spend, they have trillions of dollars to buy anything they want,” said an Abu Dhabi businessman in the Emirates Palace last week. “If they want to buy British airports they will. If they want to buy anything, they can.”

Yet for all the talk of unrestricted and unrestrained spending, the oil money is being carefully targeted. There is a long-term strategy at work.

The uncomfortable truth for Abu Dhabi is that one day the oil will run out. Although in the emirate’s case that is predicted to be more than 90 years away, there is always the prospect that the world economy’s thirst for it will be slaked sooner by clean technology.

That this is a motivating factor in the minds of the Abu Dhabi royal family can be seen in its investment in alternative energy. Two years ago it launched the $250m Masdar Initiative which is pouring money into solar and other clean energy sources. Outside Abu Dhabi City, ground has been broken on a carbon-free eco-city for 50,000 people which has been designed by Norman Foster, the British architect.

Abu Dhabi’s rulers realise that it will take more than one-off projects to secure their future. They know that it must be based on trade, financial services and tourism – and that there is a place for such a global centre to develop between the European and Asian time zones. THE fly in the ointment is that they have a rival, Dubai, a fellow member of the United Arab Emirates which is only 90 minutes away up the desert highway.

“The UAE is supposed to be one federal state but, crucially, when it was created in 1971 each of the emirates retained the right to keep its natural resources and therefore its own economic path,” explained Christopher Davidson, a Middle East expert at Durham University. “Now we are beginning to see different emirates drift away from each other more and more.”

For Dubai, the need to diversify is more pressing. It has less than 1% of the oil reserves of Abu Dhabi and the wells are projected to run dry in 20 years. This has led to the ruling Maktoum family sanctioning a development programme in Dubai the likes of which the world has never seen before. New islands have been built alongside the world’s deepest man-made port. The world’s biggest airport – bigger than Cardiff in area – and the 1km-high Al Burj t o w e r are under construction. This is not to mention the 500 hotels being built. In total an estimated £500 billion has been spent on new infrastructure.

Abu Dhabi looks with slight disdain at Dubai’s rapid expansion. “It’s a well known joke that they built the city first and then thought about designing it,” said Martin Freeman, a British management consultant who has worked in Abu Dhabi for three years. “Abu Dhabi is a more considered place. Here they are designing the city and then building.”

The government has instituted its Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 to mastermind the city’s growth over the next two decades, during which its population is projected to expand from 800,000 – half of them expatriate workers – to 3m. It will spend a trifling £100 billion on infrastructure projects as part of the programme. While not as big as Dubai’s, they will be just as gleaming.

Among these developments are an expanded airport, which will treble the existing capacity by the middle of the next decade and will provide a direct competitor to Dubai. Etihad, the state airline, also put in a £21 billion order for new planes in July, setting it up as a genuine alternative to the more established Emirates airline, based in Dubai. Logically, the region would need only one hub. But instead it will be served by two, less than 100 miles apart, with two airlines targeting international traffic.

Manchesters Finest

There is a personal side to the rivalry, although not one that is openly expressed by the publicity-shy royals. The more religious Nahyans are understood to regard their cousins’ development of Dubai as slightly vulgar and are determined to establish Abu Dhabi’s cultural credentials.

To that end they have spent a reported £270m to set up an outpost of the Louvre on Saadiyat Island, which lies just off the mainland and will form the heart of a new cultural quarter. A further £400m has secured a Guggenheim art museum, designed by Frank Gehry, the award-winning architect. Both are expected to open in three or four years’ time.

“They are trying to act independently of Dubai and the rest of the Emirates,” said Abdel Bari Atwan, a respected author on the Middle East. “They are trying to project the image of Abu Dhabi as a separate entity. They are competing with Dubai – Dubai has Emirates airlines, Abu Dhabi has Etihad; Dubai invests in the Emirates stadium in Arsenal, Abu Dhabi gets Man City.”

Indeed it is in sport where the rivalry is best expressed, with a series of tit-for-tat deals to sign up the world’s best sporting properties. When Dubai became the home of the International Cricket Council, the sport’s governing body, Abu Dhabi offered English cricket $750m over 10 years to play host to its Twenty20 one-day competition. After Dubai became the venue for a top event on the men’s professional tennis tour, its rival funded a women’s championship. Aware of Dubai’s attempts to host a Formula One grand prix, Abu Dhabi bought a stake in Ferrari and secured a place on the circuit for next year.

So far the only thing that has eluded them is the hosting of a football World Cup or an Olympics, but bids for future events are understood to be in progress. THE Manchester City deal operates on a different plane. Such is the global popularity of the Premier League that at a stroke the Abu Dhabi royal family have garnered more publicity for their country than any of the Maktoums’ horseracing exploits. Indeed, it even overshadowed their own announcement last week of a $1 billion fund to make 40 movies in the next five years with Hollywood studios.

“Abu Dhabi is making a strong statement about the brand Abu Dhabi, against the brand Dubai,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sport business at Coventry University. “Sport is a very important part of their economic strategy. It is not just a hobby, it’s part of their development plan.”

Indeed, the “branding” of Abu Dhabi is a preoccupation in the emirate. There is already an Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi that exists to promote its reputation abroad. While some might criticise such a naked expression of promoting the nation’s profile – Peter York, the cultural commentator, has described its buying up of cultural institutions as “like building Venice in Las Vegas” – there are some bright minds behind it.

Fahim, the leading player in the Manchester City deal, is key among them. He is typical of the smart, often American-educated, business people who act as executives for the royal family. Unusually, the property developer has a high profile of his own, presenting the Middle Eastern version of The Apprentice.

“Fahim has a rare gift for publicity,” said Anil Bhoyrul of Arabian Business magazine. “All his show is doing really is promoting Abu Dhabi. He calculated that if he bought billboard and newspaper advertising equivalent to that generated by the show it would cost him $180m as opposed to the $4m-$5m that the programme cost to make. He’s made similar calculations in buying Manchester City.”

Such business savvy suggests that Manchester City’s owners will not lose interest in the club in the near future, as some pundits were predicting last week.

With his love of the limelight we can expect Fahim to be more of an active presence on the English football scene than Abramovich, who has not given an interview in this country since he bought Chelsea four years ago.

For Manchester City’s fans the glee is unrestrained. Noel Gallagher, the Oasis songwriter and a lifelong fan of the club, said that for all the talk of an unlikely signing of Ronaldo and winning the league title, there was one aspect of the deal that was particularly sweet.

“It’ll be nice to know that every gallon of petrol that a Manchester United fan buys is going into our transfer kitty,” he said.

The only thing that could put a damper on such gloating would be if the gossip circulating this weekend proves to be true. The American owners of Manchester United, so the rumours go, will soon receive an offer to buy the club that they cannot refuse – from the Dubai royal family.

ThatOldRedMagic

And the part about the Maktoums buying United is based on what source?

charleysurf

Just sensationalist bollocks. You write an article about the rivalry between Dubai and Abu Dhabi and what better climax than claiming the rivalry will be played out directly between the football clubs of Manchester.

If Dubai buy any team it will be Liverpool.

Wembley Red

Dubai want a football club, thats a no brainer. But I would have thought they would have gone in for arsenal by now...i mean they sponsor the team heavily?!?

ThatOldRedMagic

Tabata

Nothing to it.

devilish

I think that we have closer ties with the Saudis rather then with the Dubai tycoons. There again, no one should underestimate the rivalry between these two big families

rotherham_red

the saudis arent interested in sport, they're much more concerned with spreading Wahabbism around the world...

devilish

If that's the case why spending 10m on a sponsor with us?

If Im not mistaken it also involves training Saudi Arabian children. Hardly a strategy made by people who doesn't care the least about football.

Wembley Red

and this is about dubai, which is part of the uae, not saudi!

devilish

I know, but I just stated whom, in my opinion, would be most interested in buying us.

I mean, last year we were first paraded in Saudi Arabia and then given this great sponsorship deal which details go beyond business matters. If the club is for sale then I wont be surprised if the Saudis would be interested.

Mad

What do the Saudis have to do with Abu Dhabi and Dubai?

rotherham_red

Keeps the children occupied, and not hankering for revolution...

rotherham_red

its my reply to devilish's post...

devilish

Could be. There again we have more links with them rather then with the Dubai families.

In few months we ended up playing there and signing a great deal with one of their finest companies.

This may be interested

http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.a...ion=7&id=11530

Man Utd Mrs

“It’ll be nice to know that every gallon of petrol that a Manchester United fan buys is going into our transfer kitty,” he said.

Noel Gallagher is such a knob jockey!

Diabo_Sam

I would love it

cuz I live in Dubai, u know Old Trafford will be se close

Tony7

Thats a good enough reason for everyone to reduce their carbon footprint who predicted that Noel Gallagher eco-warrior

Tony7

I don't want arab princes to buy the glaziers out despite the fact they've saddled us with huge debts the club still manages to be pretty much self sufficient making a profit each year and paying the installments. I know city fans are over the moon and so they should be they've never had much to be cheer about just as chelsea fans didn't. But nobody seems to be asking where the moneys coming from as they didn't with Abramovitch. Abramovitch and his Oligarch mates raped every natural resource the soviet union had while russia crumbled and arab prince's are notorius for spending oil money like theres no tomorrow while their subject's starve and are tortured. What happens when the oil runs out. Maybe instead of buying a foreign football club and pouring his countries resources down the drain he should take a leaf out of Hugo Chavez's book and use his oil money to build schools and hospitals and inferstructure.
I find these oil men being in charge of clubs rather distastefull really and while I'm no Glazier fan better the devil you know and we could get someone with blood on his hands which i really wouldn't want.
For all the Glazers faults they are smart enough to know you don't fix something thats not broke.
Abramovitch has already sacked chelsea's most successfull manager ever for no apparent reason. I fear for sparky with these unrealistic expectations

Chris H

The money's coming from under the ground, and no one is starving in the Emirates. GDP per head, estimated: UAE $33,610, UK $35,760.Tourism and trade, and the transition to that economy is already well underway in the UAE. By raising their global profile with Page Ranking efforts such as this one, they hope to further it just a bit more. The Rank of their Page will now surely improve, having bought such a massive, massive club.Good advice, but you're too late, they already did. Education at all public institutions is free, including at the university level. Health care isn't too bad, and their life expectancy is almost identical to that in the UK, about 79 for men+women.

These guys are from the United Arab Emirates. Not Yemen, not Syria, and not Saudi Arabia.

Sultan

People complaining about Abramovitch forget his money helped Chelsea win the Premiership twice, FA Cup, and reach the final of the European cup, and a big factor making the Premiership the best league in the world, and most importantly for their fans saved them form bankruptcy.

Oil Money has it's pros.

esmufc10

Sultan what happened to your avatar?

vijay

It's true, A year or two down the line a partnership bid is on cards and my source is reliable. I've already posted in another thread earlier.

The sooner it happens the better for our club.

Elliott

Could you post a link to the thread you're speaking of?

vijay

Saudi Telecom in sponsorship deal with Manchester United

No use though.

They were already planning a bid sometime back.

But an info sufficeint enought to share in a football forum.

Alex

All money has it's pros

FlawlessThaw

Not Zimbabwean money.

Alex

If you have a google or two of it it's good

Elliott

Thanks. What's the nature of the partnership bid a year or two down the line?

Sultan

New avatar - compliments of Top

KSA - ManUtd

You know too much about Saudi don't you?
The country is opening up mate, and its not in the goverments best interest to spread what you call ''Wahabbism'' !.
the Economy is open and free, has nothing to do with politics !! and if it did it would most likely be aimed at stopping the spread of ''Wahabbism'' not keeping kids from hankering for revolution

As for United having better relations with Saudis, well United's visit to Riyadh surely exposed the clubs popularity in the country to potential investors like STC but thats about it. I don't recall a Saudi company big enough to actually buy United.

VoetbalWizard

does the royal fam have dubai/abu dhabi money that they'd like to spunk on football?

Twisted_Woody

Hugely long article which I suspect is 90% drivel. Any truth in it?

KSA - ManUtd

Couple of individuals do. waled bin talal is one, newspapers reported he was interested in Everton.
Not oil money though, just a smart businessman.

vijay

Don't have much insider information. I got the info my friend a financial consultant there as they are intrested in United.... like some kinda proposal for joint ownership on cards. I already got that piece eariler and the subsequent midseason tour and a sponsorship only fuels the rumours

We have to wait and watch. As of now Arabs taking over United cannot be ruled out in the future

devilish

Don't you think that the royal family can actually afford us?

I may be wrong but if you see the fine prints in the deal its go beyond then simple sponsorship. For example We will have to train 70 saudi kids every year. I doubt that the AIG deal has something of that kind in it. Not to forget the way we left to play in the Saudi. It seemed that One moment we were at OT the other we were shaking hands with royalties.

vijay

Saudis have deeper pockets than Dubai.

fredthered

Sorry this just tickles me pink.. Absolutely hilarious.

So we're going to get Arabs taking over United to create a battle between us and City...

I can just see it now. Chester road.. United fans one end... City fans the other and they all go charging at one another on camels waving scimitars madly shouting "KILL THE INFIDELS"

The football worlds gone fucking crazy...

devilish

No one is saying that (at least not myself). What Im saying is that if a good deal is offered to the Glazer then he will accept it and if the club is available the Saudis may be interested.