For a quick word, “via” seems to make a lot of difference in some of the emails Manchester City finance staff sent to each other between 2012 and 2016.
Look up this particular preposition in a dictionary and you’ll find that it means “by means of”, “by” or “through”; so, for example, many City fans arrive at the Etihad Stadium via Manchester Piccadilly station, where City opened the scoring via a diversion.
But, on Thursday, German outlet Der Spiegel published several more examples of how “via” could be used in relation to the Premier League champions.
“Additional £15m from Etisalat to be booked on 11/12 to be funded via ADUG…additional PL earning bonuses for 11/12 from Etihad £5m, ADTA £1m and Aabar 1 million pounds – all to be funded through ADUG…an additional £15 million Etisalat cash for 12/13 will be funded in Q3 and funded through ADUG,” wrote their then chief financial officer Graham Wallace, to City Managers Simon Pearce and John MacBeath in 2012.
Or a reference to “Funding via Abu Dhabi Partners” totaling £62.5m which feeds into a column headed “Total Shareholding Funding” for the 2012-13 Cash Funding Summary, with the same expected number, via the same source , in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Or another 2012 email from Andrew Widdowson, then City finance chief, to Pearce and Wallace clarifying ‘the amount of money we need from the shareholder in January to be paid by the partners concerned…£27m via Etihad…£15m via Etisalat”.