Man City's Sheikh Mansour Has Little-Known Connection With Liverpool Owners
Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour has a little-known yet indirect connection to the owners of Premier League rivals Liverpool.
Mansour completed a takeover of City in September 2008 through the Abu Dhabi United Group.
He has been at the helm of the club ever since, though is rarely seen at matches.
In fact, he has only attended two City matches in person - a home Premier League game against Liverpool back in 2010, and City's Champions League final win over Inter Milan in 2023.
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Khaldoon Al Mubarak is City's chairman and is effectively the public face of the ownership, holding lengthy annual interviews with the club's official website.
On the pitch, City have won 23 trophies since the 2008 takeover, including eight Premier League titles.
The latter part of the 2010s and early 2020s was dominated by their close rivalry with Liverpool, with the pair often involved in two-horse races for the Premier League title.
While both clubs are in the mix again this season, it is currently Arsenal - managed by ex-City coach Mikel Arteta - who lead the way after 10 matches by six points.
In 2018, the Daily Mail reported that Sheikh Mansour's cousin, Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al Nehayan, approached Liverpool in late 2017 over a potential takeover, and was said to have held talks with then-Reds chairman Tom Werner.
However, any prospect of a buyout, which reportedly would have involved a Chinese investor, did not progress any further, with a source telling BBC Sport in 2018 that Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, were not in talks with any group over a sale.
The Liverpool Echo reported, back in 2023, that Sheikh Mansour's International Media Investments (IMI) invested $750 million into a fund created by American investment management firm RedBird Capital Partners.
RedBird IMI - which was re-named following IMI's investment - is a subsidiary of the main company, and specialises in sport and media mergers.
RedBird Capital Partners acquired an 11 per cent stake in FSG in 2021, making the firm - not the subsidiary - indirectly a part-owner of Liverpool.
One of the key figures behind RedBird is NBA legend LeBron James.
It is claimed that some of their $735 million investment into FSG was used to help fund the redevelopment of Liverpool's Anfield Road Stand end, which was re-opened in 2023.
However, TBR Football have reported that RedBird do not have any operational input into Liverpool.
The Guardian add that IMI does not hold any stake or have any involvement in RedBird Capital Partners, FSG or Liverpool.
Such situations are not entirely unusual in football, as Chelsea's owners Clearlake Capital have previously received funding from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).
There is no operational or business relationship between the two parties, however, and PIF have no stake or involvement of any kind at Chelsea.
RedBird themselves, meanwhile, own a majority stake of Italian giants AC Milan.
Topics:Ā Liverpool, Premier League, Football, Man City
Ryan Smart