Premier League is Asked If It Has Investigated Manchester City Owner Over Russia Allegations

Exclusive: UK lawyers acting for Ukrainian activist press football bodies on whether Sheikh Mansour ‘remains a person suitable to be an owner of a club’

IHR-Advisors in The Guardian on 14 October 2022

The Guardian reports that:

A Ukrainian human rights activist, who has chosen to remain anonymous, has hired UK lawyers to inquire whether the Premier League and the Football Association have taken any steps to ascertain whether Mansour “remains a person suitable to be an owner of a football club”. Mansour bought the club in 2008 and has invested billions into transforming it into one of the world’s most successful teams.

In a letter, the lawyers cite media reports that the UAE has emerged as one of the top destinations for oligarchs – including the former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich – seeking to avoid sanctions in the west.

“Many Russian oligarchs and prominent wealthy supporters of President Putin’s regime have continued to conspicuously enjoy their wealth by transferring assets from the UK, US, EU and other jurisdictions in which sanctions are in place, to third-party states without any sanctions regime or any appetite to oppose the Putin regime,” the letter states.

“One of the most high-profile destinations for the assets of sanctioned Russian individuals is the United Arab Emirates, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi apparently being particularly attractive to those individuals.”

The lawyers have also called on the UK government to investigate press reports that Mansour has been “central to the flow of Russian assets to the UAE in the period after the Russian invasion”.

The article, published by The Guardian on 14 October 2022, can be read in full here.