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UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham vowed to be transparent about meetings he held with Manchester City Football Club executives while he was mayor of Greater Manchester.
In an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast published Sunday, Burnham said, “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.” He added that his only “significant meeting” with the soccer team’s leadership was five years ago.
Manchester City was found guilty last month of circumventing Premier League financial restrictions from 2009 to 2018, essentially inflating revenue figures to spend more on players.
City has won eight Premier League titles since 2011–12, after not winning a top-flight title since 1968. The team’s sudden revival followed its 2008 purchase by the Abu Dhabi United Group, which within a year had begun revamping City’s roster with expensive, world-class international players, including Carlos Tevez and Kolo Touré.
Burnham became UK prime minister fewer than three months ago, after his predecessor, Keir Starmer, resigned after being weakened, in part, by a political appointment scandal. Burnham may have stepped into a scandal of his own.
As mayor, Burnham pushed for Gulf investment into the city. After the verdict, he reportedly told the BBC he would “be really concerned” if Man City’s owners decided to sell: “They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and obviously the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is.”
That comment didn’t sit well with some other Premier League teams, who worried about government interference in the ruling, according to the BBC. But Burnham contended in his latest interview that he hadn’t misspoken. “The football issues are different from the investment issues. People will try and conflate those two things, but they shouldn’t, in my view.
City has appealed the ruling, with a final ruling expected next year. The league has not yet decided on a punishment.
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