Credit: Manchester City Official Twitter (@ManCity)
UEFA’s last two-year penalty against Manchester City without playing in the Champions League makes it difficult to find out why.
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Likewise, the explanation may lie in the circumstances that led to the arrival of the current Manchester City CEO, Ferran Soriano, in 2012. He immediately came up with an idea to transform the English club into a world brand: o City Football Group.
From the same point of view, this would be an ambitious and medium-term plan to reach places like America, Asia and Oceania.
As a result, City’s CEO saw the need to create a fund for player purchases, sales and loans, so that it left no trace and did not yet affect the club’s income statement.
Football Leaks, which deals with “obscure” negotiations in the midst of football, discovered information about a year ago that turned on the warning signal within UEFA. According to the information presented, Ferran Soriano sought out a friend named Marc Ingla, who is a member of the board of directors of MPI II (Mangrove Player Investment). This is a subsidiary of Mangrove Founders, which is led by Lille’s representative, Gerard López, by which he acquired rights from young South American promises.
On the other hand, a third party fund, which is financed in Abu Dhabi, which had a hidden endorsement from Manchester City, had banned these practices in 2008. So there was the possibility of losing points within the 2014 Premier League. Nor did López , much less English, facilitated this platform that would bring an investment of 30 million euros. Beforehand, it would end up being used to acquire 70 emerging players for ten years. This would bring a return of 30%.
More suspicions
According to Football Leaks, there was no verification in any official MPI II document. And the City Football Group was clear on who would give the final approval on sporting and also economic decisions. The responsibility for purchasing football rights would lie with this fund and also with a Luxembourg company. Thus, it would be quite complicated to explain the binding relationship between MPI II and Manchester City.
Ferran Soriano reached consensus with Mangrove CEO Mark Tluszcz. This happened in August 2013, where the amount that the Luxembourg company would receive from the fund’s management would be established. The agreement was 375 thousand euros per year, or 1.25% of the planned investment.
Definitely all of that conversation was discussed with Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, owner in Hong Kong. City’s CEO announced that it would be okay.
In addition, this idea ended up with the purchase of Deportivo Maldonado, a Uruguayan second division club. This club would thus have the capacity to register up to 40 players, although no one will debut. Some of them like Bruno Zuculini and Gerónimo Rulli, who ended up going to Real Sociedad, from Spain. That whole plan, according to Football Leaks, has had no concrete response from Manchester City. However, all this was just an attempt not to tarnish his reputation.
(Credits: Sports World)
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