Sheikh Mansour has reaffirmed his commitment to City Football Group despite Manchester City’s ongoing legal battle with the Premier League by investing a further £100m.

Filings at Companies House show that 11,327,163 new shares in CFG were allotted on 14 October, raising the nine-figure sum. A spokesperson for CFG confirmed to City AM that the shares were bought by Sheikh Mansour’s Newton Investment and Development, marginally increasing his majority holding.

The transaction came two weeks after the Premier League announced that Manchester City had been found guilty of more than 100 counts of breaking financial rules in order to increase their spending power, helping them to become England’s dominant team. 

City chiefs have appealed the verdict, which they said “contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact and is unsafe”. If upheld, they could be relegated, fined and Sheikh Mansour forced to sell the crown jewel in the CFG network.

Describing the cash injection as “equity from our largest shareholder”, a City Football Group spokesperson added: “The proceeds will be used for normal corporate purposes against our strategic plans, funding planned investments into the City Football Group.”

CFG is football’s biggest multi-club ownership group, with mostly majority holdings in 10 teams across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. They include New York City, Melbourne City, Palermo, Girona, Troyes, Montevideo City Torque and Bahia.

Following the share issue, Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Mansour owns around 81 per cent of CFG, with US private equity firm Silver Lake holding most of the remainder. The transaction implies a valuation of CFG of £5.9bn.

CFG and Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said earlier this year that CFG would fetch “$10bn [£7.3bn] minimum” if sold on the open market. He added that there was no desire to sell, calling the organisations “jewels”.

That valuation could be affected by City’s fight with the Premier League, however. The Independent Football Regulator has powers to force owners found guilty of wrongdoing to divest by a certain deadline, after which the IFR can take the matter out of owners’ hands.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been forced to insist he will not apply any pressure to the Premier League or IFR over City’s treatment, having previously admitted he would be concerned to see Sheikh Mansour sell up given Abu Dhabi’s investment in the wider Manchester area.