Prime Minister Andy Burnham don talk say he go release details of him meetings with senior figures for Manchester City, after criticism of him comments following the club being found guilty of all charges related to breaches of Premier League financial rules.
An independent commission find say City break rules over nine-year period between 2009 and 2018 by creating “sham” contracts with commercial partners to secretly funnel more than £830m into their football operations.
Burnham previous role as mayor of Greater Manchester don cause questions about him relationship with City Abu Dhabi ownership. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch demand say No 10 release all details of meetings between the prime minister and senior figures at the club.
“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 tell 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.”
The prime minister initially tell BBC say he go be “really concerned” if Manchester City owners decide to sell up after the guilty verdict, but later he deny say him reaction “downplayed the seriousness of the findings”.
However, some Premier League clubs were so “astonished” by Burnham stance that sources tell BBC Sport say they dey “concerned” about political interference in the appeal process.
Sanctions never announce and City don lodge appeal against the verdict. City return to action for first time since the guilty verdict when they play at Liverpool on Sunday, winning 3-0.
Burnham be mayor of Manchester from 2017 until earlier this year and him tenure happen during a sustained period of success for City. As mayor, he champion investment from the Gulf as way to grow Manchester economy, a strategy wey city leaders first pursue before Burnham become the inaugural elected mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
“I don’t think I misspoke,” Burnham talk about him past comments on Man City owners. “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. And also, I didn’t link those two things. You know, the questions linked those two things. What I would say is they’re very separate. The football issues are different from the investment issues. People will try and conflate those two things, but they shouldn’t, in my view. The football issues, the findings of the independent commission are serious, as I said in the interview.”
The entire process involving the charges against Manchester City is independent of the Premier League. An independent commission hold a 42-day hearing in 2024 which lead to the verdict announced last month, with City also guilty of all charges except one relating to non-cooperation with the Premier League investigation.
The commission report talk say “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 go hear City appeal. The club continues to deny any wrongdoing.
