City Football Group

[Keith Putnam]

So, rumors are swelling that Mike Ashley is going to sell Newcastle to Sheik Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan, the cousin of CFG owner Sheik Mansour. If that happens, what do the assembled here think about whether or not NUFC would get folded into CFG? Is it allowed in the Premier League for two clubs to have the same owner?

Or should we presume that Cousin Khaled would want to set up an entirely separate sportswashing and money laundering operation to rival Cousin Mansour? Double the soft power machinery for the UAE?

 

[Christopher Jee]

So, rumors are swelling that Mike Ashley is going to sell Newcastle to Sheik Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan, the cousin of CFG owner Sheik Mansour. If that happens, what do the assembled here think about whether or not NUFC would get folded into CFG? Is it allowed in the Premier League for two clubs to have the same owner?

Or should we presume that Cousin Khaled would want to set up an entirely separate sportswashing and money laundering operation to rival Cousin Mansour? Double the soft power machinery for the UAE?

Will be interesting. Seems unnecessary controversial to do that.

 

[Ulrich]

So, rumors are swelling that Mike Ashley is going to sell Newcastle to Sheik Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan, the cousin of CFG owner Sheik Mansour. If that happens, what do the assembled here think about whether or not NUFC would get folded into CFG? Is it allowed in the Premier League for two clubs to have the same owner?

Or should we presume that Cousin Khaled would want to set up an entirely separate sportswashing and money laundering operation to rival Cousin Mansour? Double the soft power machinery for the UAE?

There’s gonna be bigger issue if Newcastle and MCFC start selling/buying back and forth with MCFC getting the better end of it each time. That’d be peak sportswashing.

 

[Keith Putnam]

that

Which, fold NUFC into CFG? Could be, but when your cousin already owns a world-bestriding football conglomerate with all the attendant infrastructure and human resources, wouldn't it seem a little inefficient to build an entire second one out of whole cloth?

Also, regardless of the eventual name on the label, two teams being owned by the royal family of the UAE still means two teams with de facto the same owner even if they're nominally overseen by different individuals. Like, if a Glazer cousin bought Spurs, you'd still say the Glazers own both Man U and Spurs.

 

[Christopher Jee]

Which, fold NUFC into CFG? Could be, but when your cousin already owns a world-bestriding football conglomerate with all the attendant infrastructure and human resources, wouldn't it seem a little inefficient to build an entire second one out of whole cloth?

Also, regardless of the eventual name on the label, two teams being owned by the royal family of the UAE still means two teams with de facto the same owner even if they're nominally overseen by different individuals. Like, if a Glazer cousin bought Spurs, you'd still say the Glazers own both Man U and Spurs.

Yup, that's a good point but I'm not sure their main goal is efficiency (wins per $ let's say) but reputation management (karma points per $ let's say). That's the whole point of reputation laundering right?

I agree on the anti-trusty elements of what you're saying though.

 

[mgarbowski]

The Adidas sneaker company and Puma sneaker company were separately founded by 2 brothers.
I would not assume that Mansour and his cousin will necessarily cooperate.

 

[Ulrich]

Yup, that's a good point but I'm not sure their main goal is efficiency (wins per $ let's say) but reputation management (karma points per $ let's say). That's the whole point of reputation laundering right?

I agree on the anti-trusty elements of that you're saying though.

I think their main point is finding a legitimate place to put their $ for when oil & gas dry up. Their country is nothing without the fossil fuel industry - hence why they are planning for the future with their money laundering/investment company, CFG. Reputation is minor compared to needing an out plan for the future strewn across multiple industries with parked capital in real estate.

 

[Christopher Jee]

I think their main point is finding a legitimate place to put their $ for when oil & gas dry up. Their country is nothing without the fossil fuel industry - hence why they are planning for the future with their money laundering/investment company, CFG. Reputation is minor compared to needing an out plan for the future strewn across multiple industries with parked capital in real estate.

Do they invest in renewable energy?

 

[Ulrich]

Do they invest in renewable energy?

Who knows if they do for their own needs, but not sure they’re in a position to store energy from solar/wind which is then transferred to a recipient country. I’m not gonna claim to be an expert on their national industry/sales, but my understanding is their exports are by ship and not by high-efficiency cable across multiple jurisdictions and borders - that’d be an issue in a volatile region.

 

[Keith Putnam]

The Adidas sneaker company and Puma sneaker company were separately founded by 2 brothers.
I would not assume that Mansour and his cousin will necessarily cooperate.

That was a case of an existing family business splitting up due to each brother accusing the other of being a bigger Nazi than he himself was. Not sure if the analogy holds. It would if Cousin Khaled ran half of CFG, got super pissed at Cousin Mansour and decided to set up a competing operation out of spite, though.

 

[mgarbowski]

That was a case of an existing family business splitting up due to each brother accusing the other of being a bigger Nazi than he himself was, though. Not sure if the analogy holds. It would if Cousin Khaled ran half of CFG, got super pissed at Cousin Mansour and decided to set up a competing operation out of spite, though.

The single predecessor of Adidas/Puma operated successfully during the Nazi era and had good party ties and government contracts, but I've never seen any evidence the split had anything to do with politics. The brothers just came to hate each other. Nazism aside, variations of the Adidas/Puma split happen in an extraordinary percentage of family businesses, and the likelihood of dissent directly proportional to the value of the enterprise.

 

[Keith Putnam]

The single predecessor of Adidas/Puma operated successfully during the Nazi era and had good party ties and government contracts, but I've never seen any evidence the split had anything to do with politics. The brothers just came to hate each other. Nazism aside, variations of the Adidas/Puma split happen in an extraordinary percentage of family businesses, and the likelihood of dissent directly proportional to the value of the enterprise.

Fair enough, though, in counterpoint, if you have a bad falling out in Peninsular royal families someone's likely to end up dead.

 

[Keith Putnam]

Further reading done as this progresses reveals that Khaled is a "distant" cousin of Mansour, is based out of Dubai rather than Abu Dhabi, and has his own multi-tentacled business empire.

So while they are both al-Nahyans and are related, I can see where the PL could accept that there's enough differentiation between them as to not cause ownership overlap problems.