Andy Burnham to Release Details of Manchester City Ownership Contacts

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will release details of his past dealings with Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi ownership, responding to demands for transparency after he spoke in support of the club’s investors following the Premier League’s financial ruling.

Burnham, previously Mayor of Greater Manchester, said the material would show that his contacts with the club’s ownership were not recent. He maintained that the questions surrounding City’s football case should be treated separately from the group’s wider investment in Manchester.

Burnham promises disclosure

1. Manchester City were found by an independent Premier League commission to have broken financial rules over the period from 2009 to 2018. City deny wrongdoing and have lodged an appeal against the decision.
2. Following the ruling, Burnham said last month that he would be deeply concerned if the club’s Abu Dhabi owners decided to sell City. He described them as an important contributor to the development of modern Manchester.
3. Downing Street later stressed that the Prime Minister regarded the commission’s decision as serious, and that those found to have committed wrongdoing must face the appropriate consequences.
4. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch then called on Burnham to publish all information connected to his work with Manchester City during his time as Greater Manchester mayor.
5. In an interview due to be released on the Rest is Politics podcast on Monday, Burnham said he was willing to publish the record of those dealings.

Burnham said he had held only one substantial meeting with the owners’ representatives, in 2021, and said he would make clear everything he had done in his former mayoral capacity.

He argued that investment matters and the disciplinary case involving the football club should not be merged. The Premier League process was independent, he said, and the allegations against City were serious enough to require that process to continue without interference.

Findings in the City case

The Premier League said the commission concluded that City had entered into commercial arrangements with several sponsors that were not genuine at their stated value. The league described the deals as part of a concealed funding structure in which the sponsors paid only part of the required sums.

The remaining money, the commission found, was provided by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, the entity that held the majority ownership of the club.

Further political pressure

Shadow sports minister Louie French said Burnham should also disclose any contacts involving Manchester City since he became Prime Minister. French called for publication of all communications between City and ministers or officials since Burnham entered Number 10.

French also questioned Burnham’s intervention in the case and called on Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy to provide full answers to the questions he has raised.