City are of course majority owned by the investment group of Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family and deputy prime minister of the UAE.
Will Pep Guardiola - like Howe - now be asked to comment on the UAE’s role in the Saudi-led military operation in Yemen? Or the country’s human rights record?
Asked last week for his thoughts on Chelsea, Guardiola said he would wait to be more informed before giving his opinion: "We are the face of the club, we are here every few days. You have to understand there are subjects we don’t know and don’t have an hour lesson to speak and talk about.
“It looks like we have to know absolutely everything. We are human beings - I don’t know.”
City, like Newcastle and Chelsea, reject any suggestion of ‘sportswashing’ of course.
And then when you are caught…you skulk around in a departure louge, wearing hat,mask,high collared jacket…getting your sneaky little money moving arse out to a country that you hope will protect you…Why not go and sit with your chummy…as you have done for quite a while…
Ludicrous. They weren’t mentioning sporting integrity when they were on a spending spree to take them from zeros to heros is less time than it takes for Big Sam to scoff a steak and kidney pie, now we’re they?
It’s about the proceeds. I’m sure the UK would be thrilled to remove Abramovich as owner (belatedly, now it’s become a problem…ha!) - the proceeds would still be embargoed though.
