Exactly. Most of us on here go to the matches and know the truth but it is the neutrals and rival fans who see the crap and THEY BELIEVE IT. The club are paying a lot of money to make City go global
but everything is undermined by the press queuing up to have a go at us or downplay all achievements. Our Press Office is poor compared with that at OT and doesn't even do damage limitation.
We don't want favouritism we want fairness. We as fans are entitled to be biased and tribalistic but we should be able to rely on the serious papers and the BBC especially for reliable information not a glorified Red Tissue blog.
It is never going to happen, I'd ask all Blues to look at who owns our club, really look at them.
Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon Al Mubarak are intensely conservative and corporate to the core. Our press office will never take on the established media, never tell the boiled bollock to f**k off and never tell Savage to shove it where the sun never shines, it will never happen.
We have great owners, everyone here agrees with that, but it's amazing how so few Blues have taken the time to seriously look at the guys at the top. this is from Wiki......
Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (born 20 November 1970), commonly known as
Sheikh Mansour,
[1][2][3] is the deputy prime minister of the
United Arab Emirates, minister of presidential affairs and member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi. He is the half brother of the current Emir of UAE,
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
[4]
He is also the chairman of the ministerial council for services, the Emirates investment authority and the Emirates pacing authority. He sits on the
Supreme Petroleum Council and the boards of numerous investment companies including the
International Petroleum Investment Company and the
Abu Dhabi Investment Council.
[4]
Mansour also owns stakes in a number of business ventures, including
Virgin Galactic and
Sky News Arabia.
[5] He is also the owner of the privately held
Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), a specialist investment company that successfully acquired
Manchester City Football Club in September 2008, and which has overseen a significant transformation at the Club since that time,
[6][7] most notably, the club have won two top flight league titles for the first time since 1968, City's first
Premier League titles. On May 21, 2013,
Major League Soccer of the United States announced that its second
New York City Metropolitan Area club, to be called
New York City FC, would begin play in the 2015 season, to be majority-owned by Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, in association with brothers
Hal and
Hank Steinbrenner.
[8]
Early life and education
Mansour was born in the
Abu Dhabi emirate on 20 November 1970, the fifth son of the Emir of Abu Dhabi
HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
[3] His mother is Sheikha
Fatima woman Mubarak Al Ketbi and he has five full-brothers:
Crown Prince Mohammed,
Hamdan,
Hazza, Tahnoun, and
Abdullah.
[9] They are known as Bani Fatima or sons of Fatima.
[10]
Mansour attended
Santa Barbara Community College as an English student in 1989.
[11] He is a graduate of
United Arab Emirates University where he received a bachelor's degree in international affairs in 1993.
[11]
Political career
In 1997, Mansour bin Zayed was appointed chairman of the presidential office, which his father Zayed II is the first and by-then president of UAE. After the death of his father, he was appointed by his eldest half brother,
Khalifa II, as first minister of presidential affairs of the United Arab Emirates, which is the merger of the presidential office and presidential court. He also served in a number of positions in Abu Dhabi to support his brother, Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He was appointed chairman of the ministerial council for services, which is considered a ministerial entity attached to the Cabinet, comprising a number of ministers heading the services departments. Since 2000 he chaired
National Center for Documentation and Research. In 2004 reshuffle, he became minister for presidential affairs.
[11] In 2005, he became the deputy chairman of the Abu Dhabi education council (ADEC), chairman of the
Emirates Foundation,
Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, and
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. In 2006, he was named the chairman of the
Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. In 2007, he was appointed chairman of
Khalifa bin Zayed Charity Foundation.
Mansour served as the chairman of
First Gulf Bank until 2006,
[12] and as a member of the board of trustees of the Zayed charitable and humanitarian foundation. Mansour has established scholarship programs for U.A.E students to study abroad. He is also chairman of the Emirates horse racing authority (EHRA).
[3] On 11 May 2009, he was appointed deputy prime minister, retaining his cabinet post of minister of presidential affairs
Business portfolio
Mansour heads the International Petroleum Investment Company,[14] which owns 71% of Aabar Investments and is used as an investment vehicle.[15]
In 2005, he was appointed as member of Supreme Petroleum Council.[14] In the same year he chaired the board of directors for International Petroleum Investment Company and became the board member of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). In 2007, he was appointed chairman of the Emirates Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of UAE.[14]
Mansour has a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic after investing $280m in the project through Aabar in July 2009.[16][17] Aabar also has a 9.1% stake in Daimler after purchasing the stake for $2.7 billion in March 2009[18] and it was reported that Aabar wishes to increase its stake to 15% in August 2010.[19] He owns the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (ADMIC) which partnered with British Sky Broadcasting to establish Sky News Arabia – a new Arabic-language news channel headquartered in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
As for our Chairman....
Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak[1](
Arabic: خلدون المبارك; born 1976)
[2][3][4] is an
Emirati businessman.
Educated in the United States, he entered a career in construction and real estate, becoming CEO of the
Mubadala Development Company. He sits on a number of
boards, including
First Gulf Bank,
Aldar Properties and
Ferrari.
[5] Al Mubarak is also a member of the Executive Council for the
Emirate of Abu Dhabi and chairman of Executive Affairs Authority.
He became the chairman of
Manchester City Football Club, when the club was bought by the
Abu Dhabi United Group back in September 2008.
Early life
Al Mubarak was born in 1976
Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates and educated in the US, where he obtained a degree in Economics and Finance from
Tufts University in
Boston, Massachusetts.
[6][7] His first position was as a sales-executive at the
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
[8]
Career
Al Mubarak is involved in construction and real estate.
[9] After working at the oil company, he was employed by the UAE Offsets Group, where he held a number of positions within the company.
[7] Since then he was Executive Vice-President-Corporate at
Dolphin Energy. He is the CEO and managing director of government-owned investment company
Mubadala Development, whose projects include a
$5 billion aluminium plant in
King Abdullah Economic City. His company also owns significant stakes in other companies, including a 5% share in
Ferrari,
[7] an 8.1% share in
AMD,
[7] a 7.5% share in the
Carlyle Group, and a share in
General Electric.
[10][11] In May 2005 he was appointed vice-chairman of Oasis International Leasing, an
Abu Dhabi-based leasing company.
[12] Through Mubadala Development, Al Mubarak is chairman of the
Imperial College London Diabetes Center (ICLDC) which opened in Abu Dhabi in 2006,
[13] vice-chairman of
Piaggio Aero,
[14] and vice-chairman of
LeasePlan.
[15] As well as this he sits on many
boards including
ALDAR Properties,
Emirates Foundation and
First Gulf Bank.
[16]
When the Abu Dhabi government was restructured in 2006, Al Mubarak became chairman of Executive Affairs Authority and a member of the Executive Council for the
Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
[17][18] He is also an Abu Dhabi Education Council member,
[19] a director of the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ABCED),
[20][21] and chairman of the Organization & Administration Department.
[12] Al Mubarak is co-chair of the
United States Chamber of Commerce's US–U.A.E. Business Council, which was established in 2007,
[22] chairman of the
Abu Dhabi Media Zone Authority,
[23] and vice-chairman of the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council which was established in 2007.
[24][25]
Personal life[edit]
In 2007 Al Mubarak was made
Commander of the Star of the Order of the Italian Solidarity for his contributions to economic relationships between Italy and the United Arab Emirates.
[19][26] Al Mubarak is a trusted aide of the
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
[4] As part of the takeover of Manchester City F.C. by the Abu Dhabi United Group on 21 September 2008 it was reported Al Mubarak would replace
Thaksin Shinawatra as chairman.
[27] It was also reported that the takeover would be fully completed on 24 September 2008.
[28] As chairman of the Abu Dhabi Motor Sport Management Company,
[29] Al Mubarak was also a key figure in negotiating for the
Grand Prix. He was also influential in getting the
FIFA Club World Cup to be held in
Abu Dhabi.
[30] Al Mubarak is also a member of the
Board of Trustees for
New York University, and as of 2013
[update] was overseeing the development of a
campus in
Abu Dhabi.
[31]
