Manchester City’s conviction on serious financial manipulation charges has sharpened the long-running rivalry between the Abu Dhabi-owned club and Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain, with the two sides having responded very differently to previous financial sanctions.
Both clubs breached financial sustainability rules through heavily inflated sponsorship agreements with state-funded companies. PSG accepted a spending limit and a fine imposed by UEFA, choosing to remain within European football’s regulatory system. Manchester City, by contrast, treated the punishment as a provocation and launched a sustained legal battle against the authorities.
The contrast has added significance because the dispute reflects a much older rivalry between Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Qatar, one fifth the size of Abu Dhabi, refused to become the eighth emirate of the United Arab Emirates when the federation was founded in 1971.
Abu Dhabi’s purchase of City was intended to demonstrate its sophistication. “The UAE is different from other Arab countries. People think the Arab world is one, but it is not,” City chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak told the Guardian in 2009. “This is showing the world the true essence of who Abu Dhabi is and what Abu Dhabi is about.”
Qatar took control of PSG in 2011, with Nasser Al Khelaifi appointed president. For a period, City enjoyed the upper hand, winning the Champions League in 2023 by beating Inter Milan 1-0, while PSG continued to wait for European success. PSG’s quarter-final defeat by City in April 2016 was considered such a national humiliation in Qatar that coach Laurent Blanc was dismissed two months later.
The rivalry, referred to as “the Gulfico” in the French sports press, has remained intense. “For PSG, it’s easier to lose against Real Madrid than against Manchester City,” a Middle East expert told L’Equipe last year. “And for Al Khelaifi, it’s easier to return to Qatar after a defeat against Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich.”
However, Qatar has avoided publicly celebrating City’s recent verdicts. Al Khelaifi’s leadership of the European Football Clubs organisation requires neutrality, while PSG’s own history of financial doping means the club cannot claim the moral high ground.
The Football Leaks emails that helped bring City to account contain no comparable record of Qatar attacking football authorities. They do, however, show Simon Pearce – a City board member since 2008 and a senior Abu Dhabi executive – discussing attempts to circumvent Premier League and UEFA rules. “Of course, we can do what we want,” Pearce wrote when asked whether payment dates could be changed to cover the £10million cost of Roberto Mancini’s dismissal in 2013.
City’s disputed sponsorship arrangements included a £400m Etihad deal, while PSG received more than £180m from the Qatar Tourism Authority, whose annual promotional budget was £38m. UEFA’s then Secretary General Gianni Infantino was shown in leaked emails collaborating with both clubs to reduce the impact of their punishments.
PSG accepted its sanction and Al Khelaifi later became one of European football’s most influential figures. Under Luis Enrique, PSG have established themselves as the continent’s outstanding team and arrive as back-to-back champions. City have failed to progress beyond the last 16 in the past two seasons.
The findings of the independent commission, which delivered 114 guilty verdicts against City, have damaged Abu Dhabi’s reputation. Pearce is overseeing a public-relations response, but the verdict has overshadowed it. While Abu Dhabi was criticised by Liverpool fans at Anfield on Sunday, Qatar was being praised internationally for mediating between Iran and the United States.
