City Ownership

[S04]

Ah, Abu Dhabi..how you make us all loose our minds in an odd way.

Just a little video from me, to give you a picture of the City and what it have become.

http://vimeo.com/23522211

very funny
FUCK OFF RAG! lol

I beg your pardon?

 

[Blue Haze]

Ah, Abu Dhabi..how you make us all loose our minds in an odd way.

Just a little video from me, to give you a picture of the City and what it have become.

http://vimeo.com/23522211

Out of curiosity, are you a multimillionaire? I've heard the average wealth of a citizen of Abu Dhabi is over 10m.

I beg your pardon?

Lost in translation, believe me. Just ignore it.

 

[Skashion]

Are there fairies and goblins in Abu Dhabi as well?

 

[SWP's back]

Are there fairies and goblins in Abu Dhabi as well?

As well as Burnage? Disgusted

 

[Blue Haze]

Are there fairies and goblins in Abu Dhabi as well?

Hehe, it sounds like a joke right?

The emirate's 420,000 citizens, who sit on one-tenth of the planet's oil and have almost $1 trillion invested abroad, are worth about $17 million apiece.

<a class="postlink" href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402357/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ ... 9/8402357/</a>

=0

Now I know the flaws of mean averages, but I had to ask.

 

[Skashion]

Are there fairies and goblins in Abu Dhabi as well?

As well as Burnage? Disgusted

At least it's not full of trolls, like Prestwich and Didsbury.

 

[Balti]

are the fairies and goblins connected?
conspirancy theory like?

 

[SWP's back]

Are there fairies and goblins in Abu Dhabi as well?

As well as Burnage? Disgusted

At least it's not full of trolls, like Prestwich and Didsbury.

I see what you did there. Very good.

 

[Damocles]

Damocles, can I ask you a question.
are you jewish ??

You'e now sent me a PM bitching at me, called me gay and asked if I was Jewish in retaliation for this thread. I'd say something like "I'm confused at how one makes another", but I'll save it, because it will end up with ten pages more and I'll just think you're ten times of a fuckwit more than I already do.

Anywho...

But he's confirming Damocles assertion that Sheikh Mohammed has influence over the club. So, it'd be on to the next point, which is, is he a human rights abuser?

Between all of the idiots, every poster here with a bit of knowledge on the situation has pretty much said the same thing:

"Mansour is legally the owner, but is essentially a figurehead and the major decisions are committee based/balance checked."

In regards to your second point, it depends on how you look at it. As Crown Prince of AD and the next President of UAE, in your opinion, do human rights abuses that happen on his turf ultimately lie at his feet or not? What about ones which he directly or financially benefits from? That's pretty much the distinction that you draw.

To be honest I was expecting a few questions after listening to Mancini’s speech, although I did not expect this sort of inquisition (cue Monty Python jokes)!

Damocles, I thought the ownership structure has already been explained before, but I guess this was the reason why I signed up to Bluemoon in the first place so let me try to
make myself clear this time.

City is owned by Sheikh Mansour.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak is Chairman.

Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei is on the Board.

The latter two work directly for the Crown Prince, this can be seen clearly from the positions they hold in Abu Dhabi, they are in effect his right hand men. They are at City to keep an eye on things and ensure that the ‘Project’ runs smoothly.

There is no way that Sheikh Mansour could have woken up one day and said hmmm this football ownership business looks like a hoot, where is my chequebook? Everything would have to be approved by the Royal Family and in particular Sheikh Mansour’s older full brother Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (the Crown Prince).

The actual idea of owning an English football club was given to Sheikh Mansour by his father-in-law Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (the ruler of Dubai) who as people are probably aware failed in a bid to purchase Liverpool via the Dubai SWF DIC. When other football clubs became available Sheikh Mohammed (the Dubai ruler) was made aware of this by Amanda Staveley (an advisor who is close to several Middle East Royal Families via here acquaintance with Prince Andrew). As he was no longer interested in buying a football club at this time (various reasons for which there is no reason to get into at this time) he recommended the notion to his son-in-law.

I seem to remember reading that there's a mini-tradition within the Al-Nayhan family for owning football clubs? Sheikh Mohammed used to be the Chairman of one didn't he? Sheikh Saeed too?

Now onto the tricky questions. The UAE like many countries has had its problems with Human Rights, this is not in dispute. However, many of the issues have been exaggerated and steps are constantly being taken to prevent such abuses from ever happening again. Nobody approves of human trafficking, abuse of labourers, prostitution etc, however, it is one thing to disapprove and another to stop them. The UAE is a new country and obviously has had some teething problems, however, in terms of the indigenous population, apart from Qataris, they are among the best treated locals in the world and the Royal Family unlike most governments are held in high esteem by the people. What I fail to understand is that there are no problems with Sheikh Mansour owing City but if it were his brother than it is unacceptable! Maybe, this is to do with the false notion that people seem to have of Sheikh Mansour just being a businessman who personally owns most Abu Dhabi linked businesses, be they Etihad or Ferrari*!

Maybe it is a false impression, but after my own readings on the Al-Nayhan family, I always believed that Mansour, whilst never directly speaking out about the abuses, had little that he could really do to change things until Mohammed moved into Sheikh Khalifa's shoes. As I say, maybe it's a misconception, but it's how I squared it.
I'm also not sure how you can say that abuses have been "exaggerated". This is the first time that many people on this forum would have heard of these, and the West's impression of UAE is a very rich, very clean and shiny place. The troubles and protest of the migrant workers there never really hit even page 26 of our newspapers, and I only really kept track of them as I use Al-Jazeera as a good source of news on the net.

Obviously people make money because of the positions they hold, whether that be a politician or a member of the Royal Family. Many members of the Royal Family hold government positions and run government entities but they also have their own personal wealth (again fine distinction but an important one).

The idea that I'm under, was that Sheikh Mansour bought City 100% through his personal wealth. If this is true, how does this square with your next statement of:

The bottom line is that without the Crown Prince City would not be in the position they are in today, Mancini simply acknowledged that fact.

I'm afraid that that bit has me confused. So he bought it out of his personal wealth and it is solely his property, but he must report all major decisions and investments out of his pocket to his big brother? Why?

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Are there fairies and goblins in Abu Dhabi as well?

As well as Burnage? Disgusted

At least it's not full of trolls, like Prestwich and Didsbury.

:O

you're really in the bad books now...