Dear readers — this is your Monday briefing: a weekly digest to get our readers ahead of the city’s news agenda. Today, we have more questions swirling around Manchester council’s relationship with Sheikh Mansour. We have Chinese espionage at the University of Manchester. We have a cryptic-crossword style search for a contact.
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Now, enjoy the news.
TfGM is carrying out major tram improvements
From Monday 19 October to Sunday 1 November:
- No trams will operate on the Eccles, Trafford Centre or Altrincham lines.
- East Didsbury and Manchester Airport trams will terminate at Firswood.
- Rochdale trams will terminate at Exchange Square.
From Monday 2 November to Wednesday 4 November:
- Minor diversions will be made to tram routes within the city centre.
Plan ahead and allow extra time for your journey. Replacement buses serve selected stops only. Bee Network bus or rail may provide a more convenient option. To see how your journey is affected, click below.
Interested in sponsoring The Mill? Get in touch.
‘We’ll cheat when we want.’
It’s been a dramatic fortnight for Manchester City FC, after the club was found guilty of 114 serious financial breaches. In the swell of speculation around their responsibility, potential appeal and likely punishment, players and staff have managed to evade the cameras. But yesterday, the club surfaced for their first league game after the charges. Fans journeyed over to Anfield, for a game against 7th-place Liverpool, and seemed to be itching to have their stance on the charges known.
The 1894 supporters group (a group of hardcore fans unaffiliated with the club’s leadership) arranged the distribution of some 1,000 inflatable bananas to bounce overhead in City’s away end, in homage to the club’s late-80s “dark days” tradition. The message, according to the group, is that “this fan base has always been on a rollercoaster. We don’t give a fuck cos we’re all pissed up.” Fans even adapted Hull City’s signature “You’re getting mauled by the tigers” chant into “you’re getting mauled by the cheaters,” as the team dominated a 10-man Liverpool side, finishing the game 3-0 up.
City are now three points clear at the top of the Premier League, likely to the unease of league executives. If a points deduction is decided as part of the club’s punishment, it will likely come in January, dashing the club’s title hopes. But fans don’t seem too bothered, chanting in reference to the club’s Emirati owner: “Khaldoon City’s in love with you... We’re going down to League Two...”
You’ll talk when we want
Speaking of which. The Sunday Times has highlighted gagging clauses in the property deals made between Manchester City Council and Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group — which owns Manchester City Football Club. It has further intensified the scrutiny around the deals, which the council argues helped remake a forgotten part of the city centre, but what academics and others believe was a local authority giving the Sheikh a sweetheart deal. Non-disclosure clauses are standard in most property partnership deals, but these particular clauses are more discomfiting: a foreign state actor effectively telling a local council what it can and can’t say in public. Though, it also worked both ways. For example, in the 2015 partnership agreement first revealed by The Mill last year – which gave ADUG “right of first refusal” over a swathe of city centre land – the clause said neither the council or the Emiratis could make public statements “without the prior written approval of the other.”
Andy Burnham, meanwhile, is set to publish all of his recorded dealings with Abu Dhabi United Group, after his ill-thought statements on the charges against its owners ("I would be really concerned to lose them”). He told today’s The Rest is Politics podcast that “the football issues are different from the investment issues”. Speaking about the recorded meetings, Burnham said “None of it is recent … in terms of the meetings I had. I only had one significant meeting … and that was in 2021. That is right and I will put that all out there.” So keep an eye out for those…
Cryptic call out
We, The Mill, are looking for someone. We’ve been looking for them for quite some time. But we can’t find them.
This person is not in trouble, nor have they done anything wrong (to our knowledge). They are certainly not set to be the subject of any kind of archetypal Mill-style takedown. We just need their help.
For the reasons stated above, we will not be naming said person. But we will tell you this. He is a man. He lives (or certainly lived) in Greater Manchester. He either used to be a paramedic, or perhaps he still is one. AND – most cryptically of all – his name (first and second together) is something you might do with your chips. If you know him, get in touch with us here.
Manchester professor collaborated on research funded by a front organisation for Chinese spies
Late last month, a “shock wave” rippled through British universities, according to the Guardian.
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