The offer landed with the people it was meant to reassure. Other Premier League clubs have told reporters they are uneasy about a sitting Prime Minister stepping anywhere near an independent process that found Manchester City guilty of serious financial breaches.
Andy Burnham moved to defuse the row on The Rest Is Politics podcast, with his comments trailed on Sunday ahead of the episode’s release.
He said he had been pressed on it by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who had asked for “everything” on his dealings with the club from his years as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
Burnham’s own account came down to a single date.
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“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 do.”
“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.”
What set the row off
Burnham arrived at the transparency pledge having first set off the alarm bells himself. In his initial reaction to the verdict he said he would “be really concerned” if City’s Abu Dhabi owners decided to sell the club, praising them as a central partner in the modernisation of Manchester.
That was the line Premier League rivals latched onto. Several clubs told reporters they feared perceived government favouritism at a moment when City are staring down the Premier League’s heaviest ever financial sanction.
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Downing Street has since tried to draw a line under the controversy, stressing that Burnham wants the football disciplinary process to run its course without interference.
115 charges and a lodged appeal
An independent commission found Manchester City guilty of most of the 115 charges brought against them, ruling that the club had broken the Premier League’s rules across nine seasons from 2009 to 2018. Investigators pointed to sham commercial contracts they said were used to artificially inflate revenue, citing figures of more than £830m funnelled in from the club’s Abu Dhabi ownership.
City have denied wrongdoing throughout and lodged an appeal.
Football and investment, kept apart
Burnham repeated the distinction he has drawn since the verdict landed, insisting the football case must stand on its own.
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“The football issues, they are serious and have to be dealt with, and the process is independent and it has to run its course.”
“But I think everybody should separate the investment issues because they’re not the same thing.”
The full Rest Is Politics episode carrying Burnham’s account is due for release on Tuesday, 13 October.
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