Burnham says City’s leadership never raised Premier League charges with him
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Andy Burnham told Parliament that Manchester City’s owners and directors did not discuss the Premier League charges against the club with him. His response came after details of his contacts with the club’s owners while he was Greater Manchester mayor were published, and Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew asked whether anyone connected to City had raised the charges.
Manchester City have been found guilty of breaching all the financial rules in the case and most of the charges of failing to co-operate with the league’s investigation. The published record includes Burnham’s formal meeting with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak at a government investment summit in October 2021, an informal conversation at Vincent Kompany’s testimonial in September 2019, and City staff joining mayoral visits to China and Japan.
- Burnham says City’s owners never raised the Premier League charges with him.
- His contacts with the club during his mayoralty were published.
- City were found guilty of breaching all financial rules in the case.
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Manchester City are owned by the City Football Group, whose senior figures include chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. The club competes in the Premier League, which sets rules for its member clubs and investigates alleged breaches.
Andy Burnham is mayor of Greater Manchester and represents the area’s interests in dealings with organisations, including local employers and sports clubs. His contacts with City’s owners and staff took place in that public role, while the Premier League charges concern the club’s compliance with league rules.
The case matters because the league’s rules apply to all its clubs, and findings can affect their standing and finances. Burnham’s published contact details provide context about his relationship with the club’s leadership.
Full account
Andy Burnham told MPs that Manchester City’s owners and directors had not raised the Premier League’s charges against the club with him. Asked at Prime Minister’s Questions whether anyone connected with the club had discussed the allegations with him or his team, he replied that they had not. He said he was willing for his dealings with the owners to be set out in full.
The exchange followed the publication of a Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) statement on Burnham’s contacts with City during his time as mayor. The statement records a formal meeting with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit in October 2021, and an informal conversation with him at former City captain Vincent Kompany’s testimonial in 2019. It also says City staff joined some mayoral overseas visits, as representatives of local sporting organisations routinely did. Burnham said he had asked the GMCA to publish the account after calls from opposition politicians.
A second report focuses on an earlier register of interests, which it says was later removed from the GMCA website. Citing the BBC, it reports that the register listed hospitality linked to City, including dinners with Al Mubarak and tickets to matches, as well as tickets to an Ed Sheeran concert. The reported entries included hospitality for an April 2020 Manchester derby and an August 2020 Everton match. The outlet says the listed benefits totalled nearly £1,200 and that the register had been signed in December 2020.
The second report also recounts criticism from Reform UK politician Robert Jenrick, who alleged that Burnham had concealed the extent of his links to City’s owners. Burnham’s response at PMQs was that the GMCA’s published statement included the matters in the news. The underlying football case is described in the first report as having resulted in findings against City on all counts of breaching Premier League financial rules and on most charges of failing to co-operate with the investigation.
Where outlets differ
The first report centres on Burnham’s answer in Parliament and the GMCA’s account of his meetings, hospitality and official visits. The second gives greater prominence to the removed register, its reported hospitality entries, and political criticism over disclosure; it also notes that the GMCA had not responded to that outlet’s request for comment.
The second report attributes the register details to the BBC and says GMCA policy is to publish only entries from the current mayoral term. The first instead quotes a GMCA spokesperson explaining the published account and says the relevant contacts were declared in the usual way. The supplied reports do not provide the full underlying register or reconcile the different records.
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Originally published by The Independent as “Man City owners did not discuss Premier League charges with me, Andy Burnham says”.