An Arab royal family are set to become the owners of Britain’s Manchester City soccer club after paying a staggering £150million to secure the deal.
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The owners, who are said to be members of the Al-Nahyan royal family of Abu Dhabi, have acquired the club from Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, through billionaire businessman Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim – who acted as the frontman for the deal.
A source told The Times: “Money is no object for these people. They are buying the club because they like watching Premiership football. It’s an aeroplane one month, a Premiership football club another month – that’s the world these people live in.”
However, while it was widely reported Al-Fahim had purchased the club for his own use, it has now been revealed he was merely a conduit to the royal family, including Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, chamberlain of the royal court in Abu Dhabi.
The company who bought the club, named the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, was set up solely to make the purchase.
The deal is set to make Manchester City the world’s richest football club – even richer than Chelsea football club, which was bought for £140million by Russian businessman Roman Abramovich.
