From the outset of the Premier League's legal case against Manchester City over three and a half years ago, it was clear that the ramifications of the saga would be felt well beyond the relatively self-contained battleground of the competition itself.

Legal experts have long since warned that this fight would one day end up on the desk of the British Prime Minister, though three different people have held that office since the charges were first announced. 

Now, that day has arrived, and what is essentially a footballing judgement has become a question of statecraft, with billions in UK investment and the important relationship between themselves and the UAE is said to be caught up in the dispute.

According to a new report from The Telegraph, the United Arab Emirates has warned it could withdraw billions of pounds' worth of investment from the United Kingdom in response to the ruling against Manchester City.

The first item at risk is a planned technology “corridor” linking Oxford and Cambridge - envisioned as the British equivalent of Silicon Valley - for which the Government needs around £10 billion in private backing, and much of that reportedly due to come from the UAE.

On Friday, Downing Street did not exactly deny reports that the Premier League and independent commission's ruling on Manchester City had “undermined” the UAE’s “appetite for future grand-scale UK commitments”.

Bloomberg, meanwhile, reported that Emirati officials issued a warning that “the Premier League’s actions” could “have an influence on the bilateral state relationship”.

The whole affair concerning Manchester City, far from remaining simply a footballing matter, could well end up being one of the defining early moments of Andy Burnham’s time in office.

The man who was Greater Manchester’s mayor until earlier this year recently said he would be “really concerned” were the UAE to sell Manchester City, describing the owners as “such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester”.

Those remarks were met with immediate criticism and a fair amount of backtracking from Downing Street - who put out a statement emphasising that the judgement was “serious and there cannot be any suggestion that anyone is above the rules”, adding “wherever wrongdoing is established, those responsible should face the appropriate consequences”.

Much of the sensitivity is due to who stands behind Manchester City, with the club owned, ultimately, by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan - brother to the UAE's president - so perhaps it was inevitable the commission’s findings would have a diplomatic ripple effect.

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who also holds multiple senior positions within the Abu Dhabi government, met UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds at Downing Street two weeks before the Premier League verdict became public.

The Department for Business and Trade has insisted the meeting was to discuss security, defence and trade, not football. Reports estimate the UAE has directed more than £30 billion into the UK over the last five years, from defence and technology to life sciences.

After being found guilty of serious breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules and alleged to have inflated their finances by more than £900 million, Manchester City have confirmed they will appeal.

A separate hearing to determine any sanctions is still to come, and what began as an argument over football finances may have grown into a test of relations between Abu Dhabi and London, and left Manchester City fans increasingly longing for the days when a trip to Liverpool's Anfield at the weekend was the most of their concerns.