The mysterious “Person X” who facilitated sponsorship payments to Manchester City in one of the deals being investigated by the Premier League was, at the time, a key aide of Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ), now the ruler of Abu Dhabi.
According to an unpublished 2020 judgement made by UEFA’s Club Financial Control Board (CFCB), Manchester City’s lawyers name the individual involved in supplying the supposed sponsorship money from state-owned Emirati telecommunications company Etisalat as “Jaber Mohamed”.
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The judgement, which has been seen and authenticated by The Athletic, as well as previously by the makers of a YouTube documentary about Manchester City’s legal battle with the Premier League and The Times, states he was “a person in the business of providing financial and brokering services to commercial entities in the UAE”.
It can now be revealed that, at the time, Jaber Mohamed worked as the General Director of the Crown Prince’s Court (CPC), an Abu Dhabi government body that runs the public affairs of the then Crown Prince, MBZ.
Another even more senior figure at the CPC was also on Manchester City’s board then too, a position he held for over a decade, raising uncomfortable questions not just about the source of the funding for the sponsorship payments, but also as to whether the payments were known about within the highest seats of power in the UAE.
In their 2020 judgement the CFCB concluded that Manchester City were guilty of breaking UEFA’s financial rules, finding that payments from Etisalat, facilitated by Jaber Mohamed, were actually “disguised equity funding”. Equity funding refers to funding that is directly injected into a club by its owners, whose cap is dictated by UEFA financial fair-play rules (FFP). Clubs are required to accurately declare their income annually to comply with FFP regulations.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) later overturned that judgement, ruling that the claims related to Etisalat were time-barred. Manchester City have always denied any wrongdoing and insist the transactions were genuine sponsorship payments.
Much of CAS’ judgement was redacted due to requests from the parties — including the name of a mysterious ‘Person X’ who facilitated payments from Etisalat.
For example, in CAS’ public summary of the CFCB report, they state that UEFA found that “[X] paid GBP [xxx] towards Etisalat’s sponsorship obligations… no sensible explanation has ever been provided by MCFC as to why [City owners] ADUG needed to engage the assistance of [X] to make the payment.”
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However, UEFA’s unredacted report reveals Person X as “Jaber Mohamed”, finding that he was a central figure in the controversial transaction.
Investigators at UEFA were provided with bank statements containing Jaber Mohamed’s name, with the panel stating in their conclusions that one email “clearly evidences an arrangement under which cash of £15million is to be paid by ‘the shareholder’ but paid through the bank account of the sponsors… In the event, a payment of £15million was made from the account of Jaber Mohamed to the account of the Club on 10 January 2013, not via Etisalat.”
The panel details: “two payments of £15million made by Jaber Mohamed on 13 June 2012 and 10 January 2013.”
In concluding their write-up of the Etisalat segment of the judgement, the five-person panel states: “The Adjudicatory Chamber is comfortably satisfied… [that] the management of the club was well aware that the payments totalling £30million made by Jaber Mohamed were made as equity funding, not as payments for the sponsor on account of genuine sponsorship liabilities.”
UEFA declined to comment on any element of this story when approached by The Athletic.
Jaber Mohamed has uploaded several pictures of himself at Manchester City on his public Instagram page, including posing with former players David Silva, Jesus Navas, and Sergio Aguero during their time at the club. Other pictures show him with chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak and the Premier League trophy.
His role within the power structures of the UAE has never previously been publicly identified.
According to a now removed page on the CPC website, Jaber Mohamed was one of the two most senior aides to MBZ as the General Director of the CPC.
He variously spells his surname as Mohammed on the CPC website but as Mohamed on his personal Instagram account — these disparities are not uncommon when translating Arabic into English due to the greater tendency to use double letters in English. The Athletic has authenticated that this is the same man.
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Whilst UEFA found that Jaber Mohamed was “a person in the business of providing financial and brokering services to commercial entities in the UAE”, The Athletic has not been able to find evidence of him holding any business or governmental roles beyond the CPC which might explain why he would be asked to provide financial or brokering services to companies linked to Manchester City.
Mohamed and the CPC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The CPC’s website describes Jaber Mohamed’s job as acting as the chief operational officer, whose role was to “oversee the day to day operations […and] also interact with all other divisions, sections, and units that all fall under the auspices of the CPC”.
According to the UAE Cabinet’s website, Jaber Mohamed held the role from August 16 2005 to August 16 2022.
More broadly, the CPC states its own role as “managing the public affairs of the Crown Prince, including his involvement in corporate and philanthropic projects”. It also describes itself as “an independent entity that enjoys full legal status as a government body”.
According to sources with knowledge of the Premier League’s current case against Manchester City, speaking anonymously as they are not authorised to discuss proceedings publicly, Jaber Mohamed’s involvement in the transaction led to the role of the CPC, a government body, in facilitating the alleged sponsorship rule breaches becoming a significant line of inquiry for the Premier League as they investigated whether the payments were from the sponsors, Etisalat, or from elsewhere.
But the CPC’s involvement also raises wider questions over the extent to which MBZ, given the alleged involvement of members of his court in providing payment, was aware of City’s sponsorship arrangements.
Given Manchester City’s strong denial of any state involvement in the ownership and control of the club, and the Europe-wide debate surrounding state ownership and control of football clubs, this link to a UAE government body raises uncomfortable questions about the nation’s role at the club, which should be of significant interest to the Premier League, whose role it is to oversee such matters.
The Premier League offered no comment when contacted by The Athletic with these concerns.
State ownership and control is currently permitted in the UK game provided that would not raise issues under the Owners’ and Directors’ Test. However the planned new football regulator is considering implementing rules outlawing state ownership or control of football clubs in the UK.
Manchester City have always insisted that it would be legally inaccurate to describe the club as state-owned. City are majority owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group, the private equity company which is owned by Sheikh Mansour, the vice president and deputy prime minister of the UAE. His brother is MBZ.
Adding to the questions to be answered, it can also be revealed that another key figure at City, former board member Mohamed Al Mazrouei, is listed as working at the CPC as the organisation’s undersecretary.
This role, according to the CPC, saw him “determine the strategic direction and the internal policies of the CPC and supervise its implementation”, where he “reported directly to the chairman (MBZ).” He and Jaber Mohamed, at the time of the payments, were the two most senior employees of the CPC.
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According to the UAE Cabinet’s website, Al Mazrouei served as undersecretary of the CPC from 2009 to 2022, and is now the Minister of State for Defense. He sat on the City board from January 30 2010 until January 1 2022, just over a year before the Premier League announced they had charged City with at least 115 breaches of financial rules.
In the Premier League’s case against Manchester City, which concluded in December, the club are accused of falsely increasing their revenue by inflating sponsorship deals with associated parties, including the deal with Etisalat, and also with hiding some costs by failing to declare some salaries and image-rights payments. They strongly deny any wrongdoing.
A verdict is due in the coming weeks. Either side can appeal the decision, but if found guilty, the range of punishment which City could face is severe, including a points deduction which could relegate the club from the Premier League.
Manchester City did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
(Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
