{"id":787704,"date":"2026-09-30T18:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787704\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T18:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:42:09","slug":"andy-burnham-really-concerned-if-man-city-owners-sell-up-after-rule-breaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787704\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham ‘really concerned’ if Man City owners sell up after rule breaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester until June, added: “I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn’t just put into the Etihad [Stadium] and the campus around it but also into the city”.<\/p>\n

He said he was “of course” confident that his own interactions with City’s owners when he was mayor would stand up to scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Burnham made his comments amid widespread shock in football about the scale of the independent commission’s findings \u2013 and the strength of Premier League comments about City’s actions.<\/p>\n

Burnham was speaking to the BBC from Hill Dickinson Stadium, the home of Everton, the team he supports.<\/p>\n

Everton had their own run in with Premier League financial rules when they were charged and deducted<\/a> 10 points for more minor breaches in November 2023, reduced to six on appeal.<\/p>\n

Burnham said: “Everton was in this position a few years ago and you might remember that I fought for Everton in that situation because I still hold the view very firmly that they weren’t fairly treated in that process.”<\/p>\n

Drawing a comparison between that and City’s current predicament, he added: “I remember people proclaiming Everton guilty at the time and with hindsight I think more people would say that wasn’t fair, the way that was handled.<\/p>\n

“So it would be wrong of me to leap to one side given the experience that I’d had before becoming prime minister.”<\/p>\n

It is “frustrating when people rush to judgement”, Burnham said.<\/p>\n

He accepted there was “a lot at stake” for City fans, the club and Manchester itself.<\/p>\n

But he added it would be wrong for him to intervene.<\/p>\n

City have said in a statement they are “both disappointed and surprised by the opinion of the Premier League Commission” and maintained their innocence of all the accusations made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester until June, added: “I do actually thank the City Football Group and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-787704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}