Oh, it's bigger than Mr Manchester

And here was me thinking it was just about football and Mr Manchester.

I've had one of those, "Oh, I might be ignorant" moments.

The truth is, I don't really know that much about the UAE. I just kind of assumed they were the good Muslims. Islamo-capitalists, not Islamo-communists. But beyond a stereotypical view of Dubai as the wealthy place where expats go I don't really know that much.

So if we're talking purely football I'm right and everyone else is wrong. Manchester City should be able to spend whatever they like ..you destructive communists. However, if we're talking geopolitics, I'm out of my depth.

Should a foreign state effectively own a British football club? I don't know. I don't know much about the actual state in question, so I'm clearly not qualified to judge.

Obviously, the UAE is just across the strait from Iran. So it's that part of the world. It's going to be a bit muddy.

I tend to operate on instinct. In the course of my Twitter debates on the topic I've noticed a heavy overlap between hating Man City and having a Palestinian flag in your bio. (One guy even had a terrorist-looking Palestinian as his profile picture, lol.) Given Palestine flag-wavers tend to lean to the communist side of things, and given those demanding punishment for City are basically advocating anti-capitalist Premier League rules, I naturally assumed it was black and white.

Perhaps it's more complicated than that though. Perhaps the UAE is a bit statist too. Perhaps destroying the Premier League with communism is in the national interest after all.

I've made my point about free markets in football, so now I'll sit back. It's reminiscent of the ousting of Abramovich from Chelsea. I didn't like that either, but I likewise had a poor grasp of the geopolitics at the time too.

So, is it purely a football issue this time round? Is it a national politics thing? An international politics thing? I don't know.

Again, going back to instinct, all the right (or rather wrong) people seem to be gunning against City. All my natural enemies ..Palestine flag-wavers, Irish Republicans (there are a lot of Manchester United fans in Ireland, so that's probably coincidence), bureaucrats, Piers Morgan, Terry Christian (another United fan, also a remainer - the whole Premier League spending cap thing is a bit of a UEFA/Euro-coded import), lefty football writers that want the "fans to own the club," lefties in general. It's a long list.

(They're not really my enemies. I love them all really ..they're just wrong about everything.)

You can't rely solely on vibes and instinct though, you do need a bit of knowledge. Which I'm lacking. Plus, I've kind of found myself on the side of Andy Burnham on this one too, which should be something of a vibe check. Though, to be fair, I think he probably knows even less about what's going on than I do.