Man City: Prime Minister Andy Burnham to publish particulars of his meetings with the club’s owners
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will release details of his meetings with senior figures at Manchester City, after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch demanded that No 10 publish all records of contact between the prime minister and the club.
The move follows criticism of Burnham’s comments after an independent commission found Manchester City guilty of all charges related to breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.
The commission found that City had broken the rules over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018. It concluded that the club created “sham” contracts with commercial partners to secretly funnel more than £830m into its football operations.
“I’ve been asked by the leader of the opposition to publish details of my meetings, which I’m happy to do and I’m going to,” Burnham told the Rest is Politics podcast.
“I will quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
“None of it is recent, actually, in terms of the meetings I had. I only had one significant meeting, actually, and that was in 2021.”
Burnham’s earlier comments
Burnham’s previous role as mayor of Greater Manchester has prompted questions about his relationship with City’s Abu Dhabi ownership. He led the city region from 2017 until earlier this year, a period of sustained success for the club.
Burnham initially said he would be “really concerned” if the club’s owners decided to sell up following the guilty verdict. He later denied that his reaction had “downplayed the seriousness of the findings”.
Some Premier League clubs were so “astonished” by his stance that sources told the broadcaster they were “concerned” about political interference in the appeal process.
Burnham rejected the suggestion that he had misspoken. “I don’t think I misspoke,” he said. “What I would say is my mind hadn’t been on all of the issues. My mind had been on Labour Party conference and I was doing interviews in relation to it.”
He also said he had not linked the two issues himself. “The football issues are different from the investment issues. People will try and conflate those two things, but they shouldn’t, in my view,” he added. “The football issues, the findings of the independent commission are serious, as I said in the interview.”
Sanctions and appeal
Sanctions have yet to be announced, and City have lodged an appeal against the verdict. The entire process is independent of the Premier League.
The independent commission held a 42-day hearing in 2024, which led to the verdict announced last month. City were found guilty of all charges except one relating to non-cooperation with the Premier League investigation.
The commission’s report said that “a number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects and that some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence”. A separate independent appeal board will hear City’s appeal, and the club continues to deny any wrongdoing.
City returned to action for the first time since the verdict on Sunday, when they won 3-0 at Liverpool.