Shock emails that could prove City did cheat

LONDON – It was l ate morning on Tuesday April 12, 2011, when a senior executive within the sports sponsorship team at Etihad Airways compose dane mailto a business contact working in the ‘ partnerships’ department at Manchester City.

It was a month before Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson would win their 19th English top- division league title, surpassing Liverpool’s record of 18. Chelsea would be runners- up on 71 points that season, just ahead of City, also with 71.

City, then managed by Roberto Mancini, had extended their wait for a first title since 1968 to 43 years, but with a core of influential players including Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Gareth Barry, James Mil ne rand Carlos Tevez — joint winner of the Premier League Golden Boot along with Dimitar Berbatov — they appeared to be knocking on the door of a real renaissance. The Etihad exec began their email: ‘‘ Dear ( XXX) … there seems to be some confusion about an outstanding balance of the sponsorship fee for the 2010/ 11 season.’’

The Mail on Sunday knows the identities of both the sender and the principal recipient of the email but neither works for the same company any more and both moved to different spheres of business.

‘‘ As you are aware,’’ the writer continued, ‘‘ Etihad’s commitment is for £ 4 million and the remaining balance (£ 8 million) is handled separately by the ( UAE) Executive Affairs Authority. Please can you clarify this to your accounts department and pick it up direct with the EAA in due course. Kind regards.’’

To put this into context, The Mail on Sunday has been told — and has seen corroborative paperwork — that Manchester City invoiced Etihad for £ 12 million for the 2010- 11 shirt sponsorship deal, but the invoice had a hand- written annotation that Etihad themselves were only due to pay £ 4 million that year.