Abu Dhabi’s mega rich royal family are set to shock football by investing more of their millions into little-known Welsh club Bangor City.
Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, nephew of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, was awarded a PhD in economics from Bangor University last week.
And is ready to repay the city he studied in by pumping some of the family's £500bn riches into the club who average attendances of just 400 a game and make them the Man City of Wales.
The 26-year-old sheikh said: “I don't see any reason why my family wouldn’t want to invest in the club.
“We love our football and this is something which we will definitely look at in the near future.
“The city has been good to me and I've enjoyed the friendly and supportive atmosphere at Bangor.
“It was a very good time and I’d love to give something back to the city.”
But the possibility of big money being put into the club is down to Business School head and Bangor City fan Professor Phil Molyneux.
He said: “I’ve been trying to get him to put money in Bangor City for a while. He’s very well off and the club would do very well out of it.”
Bangor chairman Dilwyn Jones said the club planned to speak to the sheikh about investing in the club and offered him an invitation to their Europa League tie against Finland's FC Honka in Wrexham last Thursday.
He said: “We would be very happy to talk to the sheikh to look at possible options.
“We'd be interested to know how much he knows about the club and whether he's been to see us.
"If there is a serious intent from the sheikh to invest in the club then that would of course be very welcome.
“He obviously enjoyed his time in Bangor and we have a great relationship with the university.”
At Manchester City the sheikh's family have spent £140m on rebuilding Mark Hughes' side, signing the superstars Robinho, Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz along the way.
City even launched a bid to tempt England skipper John Terry from Chelsea with a salary of £250,000 per week while Bangor offer each of their players about £150 a game.
The Welsh club finished sixth in last season's Welsh Premiership but qualified for the Europa League after winning the Welsh Cup.
Should Bangor win the Welsh Premier they then have a chance of challenging for a place in the Champions League group stages.
And the European riches on offer for qualifying for the group stages of the competition could prove attractive to the Abu Dhabi royal family to turn down.
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