Football Daily - Introducing......Football on Trial: The Manchester City Charges

Episode Date: March 1, 2025

Clive Myrie tells the football story of the century: the rise of Manchester City and the Premier League allegations of financial rule-breaking that threaten to bring the club crashing down. Football on Trial is a Tortoise Media production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Hi football daily listeners, this is Clive Myrie. I'm here to introduce you to a new podcast, Football on Trial, the Manchester City Charges. It tells the story of the extraordinary modern day rise of Man City and the allegations of financial rule breaking that threaten to bring the club crashing down. You're about to hear episode one and you can listen to episodes one to four right now first on BBC sounds. BBC sounds music radio podcasts. A company set up by the royal family of the Gulf oil state of Abu Dhabi has bought Manchester City football club. The new owners say they plan to make the club one of the top four in England.

It's pandemonium. it's ecstasy. It's an authoritarian regime. People on the floor, there were people rolling down the steps, there were people running back in. The bodyguard actually came up to me and said, what's that man doing up there? You sure he's not got a gun? I don't understand how Men's City, the organisation, the fans, can celebrate winning a title in a league that they have so much to stain for. Somebody turned up at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and effectively served papers. I'm Clive Myhre and I'm a lifelong Man City fan. I actually come from a family of

United supporters so I was being bloody minded supporting City. I just like the sky blue colour and I've been stuck with them ever since. I grew up within about a thousand yards of Bolt Wanderers Football Club at Burndon Park. So I'd see City there. My mom would let me travel to Main Road to iffy for a young black kid, she'd say, traveling all that way. So I'd stand at the Kipax end a lot later in life. Nick Hornby wrote that the natural state

of the football fan is bitter disappointment. And fans like me, City fans, we know that all too well, we call it Cityitis, the ability to snatch defeat from victory. I will never ever forget 1981 FA Cup replay, we lost 3-2 to Ricky Villa, Ozzy Ardiles and Tottenham. I mean we had the final in the bag in the 100th FA Cup final at Wembley. My mum recalls that after that replay I couldn't eat my dinner that night, I was so upset. But fast forward to 2008, something unexpected and extraordinary happened to the Blues. I said that this is a bit off-planned, there's a guy here who wants to talk to you about buying a football club.

I remember it happening really quickly, almost in the blink of an eye. They said they'd just been taken over by a sheik from the Middle East. Yesterday a new owner arrived in the shape of a group from Abu Dhabi, boasting even more financial clout than Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich. Flush with cash and a vision for the future, City were transformed. And in turn, transformed football forever. I've seen some of the best footballers in the world play for my club. Carlos Tevez will undergo a medical this morning

before completing his move to Manchester City for around £25 million. Erling Haaland scoring his 35th Premier League goal of the season, so finally prizing that record away from Andy Cole and Alan Sheeran. Manchester City midfielder Rodri has won football's most prestigious individual award, the Ballon d'Or. I've seen them lift trophy after trophy. Eight Premier League titles, six league cups, three FA Cups, the Champions League. And I've seen my team win the Premier League in the final game of the season, an ending that for City fans was almost a religious experience.

I remember this guy, one guy just sobbing on the floor and he had his head in his hands and he's just crying his eyes out and shaking. These moments, the highs and the lows, span decades standing on the terraces at Main Road and it has to be said, sitting in the comfier seats at the Etihad. Then the Premier League dropped a bombshell. The Premier League has charged Manchester City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules

following a four-year investigation. They believe they've got irrefutable evidence and they'll see themselves cleared when it goes to the panel. My first thought is that we are already being condemned. One that threatened to cast a shadow on all our glory days, smothering every City fan's happiness. Effectively, an accusation that the club has been lying to the authorities and submitting

false information. I think it will be ground-breaking in terms of how the Premier League will have to operate going forward. The City fans will be ground-breaking in terms of how the Premier League will have to operate going forward. The City fans will be there no matter what, whether guilty or not. And if we are guilty, then we deserve our punishment. This is football on trial, the Manchester City charges for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live. It's the story of the extraordinary modern-day rise of Man City and the allegations of financial rule-breaking that threaten to bring the club crashing down.

Episode 1, A New Hope. City were playing Schalke 04 in the semi-final of the European Cup Winners' Cup 15th April 1970, I was 10 years old. The first game was in 1995 and that ironically was an away game, it was Gouldersham Park, the home of Everton of course, and then after that, that was it. The first ever game was Brentford, I think it was a Rumbelhose Cup game. I remember we won 4-1, that was around 89-90. Got myself a scarf and a badge in the ground

and I was just hooked. The first time I remember City playing, 1978, Joe Corrigan, Peter Barnes, Willie Donachie, Brian Kidd, Asa Hartford, they were all in the side but there was a player called Roger Palmer. He was black and he was the striker and he scored that day. So that helps cement my love of City. Every football club has its fanatics, the people who measure out their life in matches and memories. Their recall competes with the best contestants on Mastermind. Kevin Parker is one of them. He's had a Man City season ticket for more than 50 years

and he's turned his lifelong obsession into a job title. I'm the General Secretary of Manchester City Supporters Club I've been for about 22 years now. Along with a couple of others, Kevin Parker is going to give us a whistle stop tour of city's modern history because to understand why the Abu Dhabi takeover was such a big deal you have to get a sense of where City were in the old days. My first game watching City was 26th of August 1970. It was a 10th birthday present. I worked with my dad who took me along really hoping that I was going to be a Blackpool fan.

I remember going into the stadium and the first thing that struck me was the brilliant colours. It was a summer's evening, so the beautiful blue sky, the green grass, City wall, sky blue and white, Blackpool wall, tangerine and white. City won 2-0. Francis Wee scored as did Colin Bell and much to my dad's disappointment I came home a City fan. For all those brilliant colours and for me it was the colour too, to be a City fan in

the 70s and 80s you had to get used to defeat. Of course there were many brilliant moments, a League Cup win in 1976, a 10-1 victory against Huddersfield Town in 1987, promotion on the last day of the season in 1989. But there were also too many cold nights to remember, watching the City Keeper fish the ball from the back of our net. But as any football fan will know, this is all part of the love affair. We've had this opportunity to really be on death's door as a football club but still enjoy it. I remember going to Lincoln for a night game once and the Beatles fall off. I look back on fondness with the fact that we were going to these stadiums and getting absolutely pummeled.

No question though, sometimes City were a difficult team to love. Especially in the 90s when everything about Manchester was wonderful, except City. I'm Noel. My name's Liam. I'm the singer and he's a guitarist on Lionel. One man definitely hitting the target from distance is David Beckham, one of the sweetest strikers of the ball around. Here's a band out of the Manchester scene right now, the Stone Roses with full gold. Businessmen, pop groups, they stay here and they feed back into the city. It's one of the great things about the town. Factory Records and the Hacienda were in their prime, Oasis and Take That were two of the biggest bands in the country and Man United were dominating English football. As for City, well the 90s started out pretty well, they had a few seasons in the Premier League,

but then in 96 they got relegated. The chairman said that he would jump off the kickbacks, the terrace stand at City's ground, if the club was relegated again. And then in 1998 they were. I think that season City fans were all very optimistic that we would get promoted back up to the top division. But of course, it all went perfect, didn't it? We ended up getting relegated to effectively the third tier. City fan Emily Brobin remembers the anger turning to theatre. There were some dark, dark days back then when we got beat at home to Bury, where the fan came on the pitch and ripped his season ticket up.

And there was another fan who threw his season ticket on the pitch and the club actually sent it back to him saying, if we've got to suffer, you've got to suffer with us as well. 98-99 saw Man United make history as the first team to do the treble, winning the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League in a single season. They were the biggest football club in the world. He still has the ball with his right foot, into the roof of the net,

and Manchester United rule Europe. I don't believe it, but it's happening. City, meanwhile, were in the Doldrums, in the third tier of English football. And even at that lowly perch, they found things hard going. I remember being at York in December 1998, and we lost 2-1 at York City. It was dreadful, abysmal, depressing and as low as it could get. Fortunately City do sort themselves out.

They make it to the play-off final, a chance to move back up a division. 2-0 down at Gillingham with the end of the game drawing near. City seemed destined to fall short, but they scored two goals in the final minutes and then win the penalty shootout. They're promoted. OK, it's not the same as Man United's famous comeback against Bayern Munich to win the Champions League. That happened four days earlier, but for many City fans this was a pivotal moment. We were still only getting promoted back to the second tier of English football,

but the belief came back. I think that was the thing that happened. After that, City dragged themselves back into the Premier League. It was a day of celebrations yesterday for Manchester City as they were crowned champions of Division 1. So here we are in the early 2000s. Some things have changed, take that of broken up. Oasis are starting to fade, the Hacienda is shut and demolished. But Man United are still the dominant team in English football,

Man City are now back in the top division with them. But they're still little old city, typical city, looking on at the very best teams with envy. I remember we used to watch Arsenal come to Main Road and I used to be so jealous. This is City fan Emily Brobin again. we used to watch Arsenal come to Main Road and I used to be so jealous. This is City fan Emily Brobin again. I used to just watch them and Thierry Henry and all their players, Bergkamp and Fiera. I was just in awe at the football in front of me and I was so jealous and I thought if only my football club could do that, if only. And it's funny, isn't it, when you stay loyal like that.

City did try to wear the clothes of the big boys. In 2003, they moved away from Main Road into a new ground, the City of Manchester Stadium, built originally for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. It would later be called the Etihad. But the club struggled to adapt to its new surroundings. It did not feel like home. It was just an empty soul. It was a grey bowl and the first couple of seasons there, I felt pretty miserable. And the Stuart Pierce season was awful. I remember going watching the training at Carrington and I took some of the lads from uni. I was studying sports journalism at the time. They were all laughing at me, none of the players could hit the back of the net, they

couldn't hit a bar and all. City reached another low in 2007 when Stuart Pearce was sacked as manager. At least when the club were in the third tier there was a sense of purpose. Eight years later City felt stuck, no money, no manager, little in the way of hope. That is before one of the most bizarre seasons in City's history. And no, we're not quite at the Abu Dhabi takeover just yet. Former England boss Sven Joran Eriksen may well be back in English football before the start of the new season. The former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinowat, has had an 81 million pound bid for Manchester City accepted

and spends the man he wants as manager. In 2006, the billionaire Thaksin Shinowat had been deposed in a military coup after five years as Prime Minister of Thailand. The Prime Minister, attending the UN General Assembly in New York, declared a state of emergency and a curfew, but he no longer had the power to do so. A year later, he bought Man City. I was cutting the pitch one day and he came out onto the pitch.

They had three or four bodyguards with him and he came up to me because I had stopped cutting. Lee Jackson was the city groundsman for 33 years. And the bodyguard actually come up to me and said, what's that man doing up there? And I looked up and it was someone cleaning seats. I think it was pre-season, so it would be the annual sort of deep clean of the stadium, which would normally take place. And he'd just come up with the most bizarre line.

He said, you sure he's not got a gun? I thought hey it was a very different world then there was a sort of mystery around everything. When Taksin Shinowat took over Siti, he bought a lot of baggage with him. 800 million pounds of his assets had been frozen and that was just one of his many problems back home. Much has been made of how suitable an owner he is because he's facing corruption charges in Thailand. just one of his many problems back home. But Taksin Shinowat also brought some excitement to the club. He hired the former England manager, the late Sven Joran Eriksen. Sven was charming, charismatic, a regular on the tabloid front pages for his antics off the pitch and he was a decent coach too. Under Sven, City did the double over Man United in the Premier League. The first time we'd done the double over Manchester

United in, I can't remember how many seasons to be honest with you. And he went down in legendary folklore just for that achievement of that season you know. Plenty of City fans look back at that season quite fondly now, but the financial picture around the club became increasingly murky. Her former chairman, John Wardle, loaned City millions of pounds and taxing Shinawatra stopped providing funds for the club. It was all warm words and smiles when he snapped up the Premier League club for $160 million. While now there's

uncertainty he'll be allowed to keep it." And things went downhill on the pitch too. City faded as the season went on. Middlesbrough thrashed us 8-1 on the final day. Sven-Euren Erikson's reign as Manchester City manager is indeed over. The club confirmed this morning that the former England manager has left by mutual consent. I tried to organise a Save Sven campaign. Oh, it's horrific when I look back. I campaigned and tried to get thousands of fans on board and five people turned up, but the sentiment was there because people loved Sven. He was an honest gentleman and there is a song, you know, hey, taxing, leave us then alone. and there is a song, you know, hey, taxing, leave our son alone.

Sven gone, city in financial peril. What should have been a moment of hope had become what seemed another false dawn. Enter stage left an unlikely hero. A man who set into motion a chapter in city's history that is still playing out to this day. Suleiman Al Fahim. Man City was available for us and Man City has a special thing to the Manchester people, the fans, the people in Manchester, the people in the UK. A flamboyant real estate CEO who drove around in a custom-made Lamborghini, Suleiman Al Fahim was the star of a TV show called Hydra Executives. Impress me.

The Golf's answer to The Apprentice, the show pitted wannabe business people against each other. Andy Baker, London, internet marketing. My name is Hannah, I'm an interior designer, I'm from London. Suleyman Al Fahim, a former chess prodigy, has been described as the Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi. Trump's children, Don Jr and Ivanka, even made cameo appearances on his show. And yes, after every episode of Hydra Executives, a contestant was fired.

Not with a pointed finger, but a piece of paper. The pink slip goes to Aida. Sorry, my friend, you're going home. Suleiman al-Fahim was more than a TV show host and real estate mogul. He was a middleman, a bit of a wheeler dealer with his finger in a lot of pies. And in 2008 he had an idea.

We'd had a few dinners where he talked to me about the fact that whatever Arabs did in business, they never really got the credibility and the respect that he thought they should get. And he was thinking, you know, football was different. This is Anil Boyrol. He's a journalist in Dubai who knows Suleiman al-Fahim pretty well. Boyrol broke the news of the Abu Dhabi takeover for Arabian Business, a news website and business magazine in the Middle East. In the summer of that year, so three, four months before the takeover happened,

he came to me and said that they'd looked at the Premier League. Now I can guess what you might be thinking here. This is taxing all over again. And Suleiman Al Fahim did later get into trouble over a completely separate deal. In 2018, he was sentenced to five years in a UAE jail. He stole five million pounds from his wife to buy Portsmouth but when it came to the city deal, Suleiman Al Fahim had serious muscle behind him. Fronting an Arab investment group backed by the Abu Dhabi royal family he claims to have more money than Chelsea's Roman Abramovich at his disposal. Suleiman Al Fahim was the public face of the Abu Dhabi United

group, the company behind the purchase, but two other men were pulling the strings. Khaldun Al Mubarak, an Abu Dhabi government official and Sheikh Mansour, an Emirati royal who is part of a family with hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth. Khaldun Al Mubarak and Sheikh Mansour wanted to buy a football club and Suleiman al-Fahim was in charge of making it happen. And I always remember he showed me basically a guardian list of the tables and was showing me the different clubs and telling me the pros and cons.

And he said that they'd narrowed it down to two clubs, which was Newcastle and Man City, primarily because one, they thought both were available for sale and two, because of the fan base. They had this huge, huge loyal fan base, whatever happened. And actually just asked my opinion, what do you think? And I said, yeah, you're right. And I said to him, for what it's worth, Mike Ashley is a very tough guy to deal with from what I know. Sports directs Mike Ashley was the owner of Newcastle United at the time.

Belligerent and brash, a court once heard that he'd hosted a management meeting in a pub where he drank 12 pints and threw up in a fireplace. He said, what about Faxon, who owned Man City? With his finances tied up, taxing Shinowat seemed like a better option than Mike Ashley. Taxing would have every reason for doing a deal. So Suleiman Al Fahim went away and started reading up about City. None of this would have happened without him. He was so excited he would ring me up at 10 pm and be like look at this did you realize that the Premier League club can do this

and the fan base in Manchester is this and there's two clubs. He was like doing a PhD in it and he just wouldn't let go. Soon he was ready to reach out to Thaksin Shinawatra. And so we've done our research and due diligence and whatever else and Man City is very interesting to us. This is one problem we can't get through to Thx it. Do you have his number? I said, I have his number. I'll give it to you. In fact, I'll call him and I'll connect you, but you need to give me the story. If you ever buy the club.

And he said, it's a deal. So I called accents people. I got through the facts and I said, look, this is a bit off plan, but there's a guy here who wants to talk to you about buying a football club. To be fair to Alfie, in the day before the deal was made public, he called me up and said I owe you a favor and check your phone now. And there was a picture of them signing the deal. He said, you have 24 hours before this becomes public.

You didn't get it from me. And so we broke the story. You can still read Anil Boyrol's exclusive today. It's a short piece for Arabian business with this headline – Abu Dhabi seals deal to buy Manchester City. What this headline doesn't capture, even after the chaos of Taqshin Shinawatra, is just how extraordinary the purchase is. Manchester City, in the third tier of English football a few years earlier remember, bought by Abu Dhabi royalty.

The independent newspaper called it right that day, the deal that transforms football. Nobody, including Al Fahim or Abu Dhabi, had any idea of how big this was. This was basically 200 million pounds. This is a really small deal for the likes of Abu Dhabi. It's just not interesting. The fact that it was a four-ball club was potentially more interesting and it could lead to bigger things

and it could put Abu Dhabi on the map to some extent, but nobody had a clue quite how this would play out. Anil Boyrol and City's new owners soon found out how it was playing out, intensely. And I remember sitting in my office, and I was like, why is my phone going crazy? And it was Sky News, it was CNN, it was BBC. And I think this is bigger than I thought.

About two hours later, Al Fahim rang me up and he said, what are you done? I said, what's it be, it's you. He was like, oh no, he said, this is going absolutely crazy. He said, I didn't think this would be this big. This is the biggest news in town. And I said, yeah, it is. Suleiman Al Fahim was out of the picture in short order with Sheikh Mansour and Khaldun Al Mubarak coming to the fore. On day one, City was shaking up football. I got a text from one of the guys on the Abu Dhabi team and said, he heard a guy called Robinho. On day one, City were shaking up football.

I got a text from one of the guys on the ABUTABI team and said that he heard of a guy called Robinho. And I said yes. And he said, he's my player now. And I was like, wow, these guys are moving pretty fast. Not pretty fast, but very fast. Overnight City transformed from a middling journeyman of a club to the richest football team in the world and soon one of its best.

In episode 2 of Football on Trial City bring a long wait to an end. Winning that FA Cup after the heartbreak of losing in 81 and not being there in 69 because I was too young, that felt very emotional. And they give the Premier League its best moment of all time. When I tell you the noise in the stadium, I've never heard noise like it in my life. It was like a large crackle and I just burst into tears. But at what cost? It was about sports clubs competing, about who's the best team and who's winning a title.

It has moved far beyond that. It's a matter of huge geopolitics. It's a matter of huge amounts of money. Football on Trial, the Manchester City Charges is a Tortoise media production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live. It was hosted by me, Clive Myrie. It was written by Xavier Greenwood and produced by Xavier Greenwood and Andrew Butler. Original music and sound design was by Tom Kinsella. The development producer was Jess Swinburne and the editor was Jasper Corbett.

The commissioning editor for the BBC was Richard Maddock. Assistant Commissioner for the BBC was Richard Maddock, Assistant Commissioner for the BBC was Lizzie Doyle. And you can listen to the next episode of Football on Trial right now, first on BBC Sounds. What does it take to go racing in the fastest cars in the world? Oscar Piastri. Your head's trying to get rid of one way, your body's trying to go another. Lance Stroll.

It's very extreme in the sense of how close you're racing wheel to wheel. We've been given unprecedented access to two of the most famous names in Formula One, McLaren and Aston Martin. I'm Landon Harris, racing driver for McLaren Formula One team. They opened the doors to their factories as the 2024 season reached its peak. They work to build a beautiful bit of machinery that I get to then go and have fun in. I'm Josh Hartnett. This is F1 Back at Base.

Listen on BBC Sounds.