{"id":788786,"date":"2026-10-01T18:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788786\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T18:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T18:00:12","slug":"andy-burnhams-manchester-city-comments-stir-fresh-tensions-with-premier-league-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788786\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham\u2019s Manchester City comments stir fresh tensions with Premier League | Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham\u2019s intervention in the Manchester City<\/a> debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the prime minister.<\/p>\n

Government officials are understood to be unhappy they were not given notice that the independent commission\u2019s damning judgment of \u00a3900m of financial manipulation and \u201csham contracts\u201d<\/a> would be published shortly after Burnham\u2019s address at the Labour party conference on Tuesday, and his response has not gone down well with several Premier League clubs concerned by his relationship with City\u2019s owners.<\/p>\n

In a series of interviews on Wednesday Burnham said he would be \u201creally concerned\u201d<\/a> if City\u2019s owners were forced to sell after being found guilty of more than 100 breaches of financial rules.<\/p>\n

Such was the reaction that Downing Street felt compelled to clarify Burnham\u2019s position on Thursday, with a No 10 spokesperson saying the prime minister had made clear that \u201cthe initial judgment is serious\u201d and \u201cthere can\u2019t be any suggestion that anyone is above the rules\u201d.<\/p>\n

With City appealing against the verdict, the spokesperson noted the process had to be allowed to run its course but said: \u201cIf wrongdoing is established those responsible should face the appropriate consequences.\u201d That phrase raised eyebrows given City have been found guilty by an independent commission after a 42-day hearing that produced 7,000 pages of witness evidence, eight years after the Premier League<\/a> began investigating the club.<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s apparent sympathy for City, with a warning about jumping to conclusions and praise for the owners\u2019 investment in Manchester, has alarmed some clubs but the Premier League declined to respond.<\/p>\n

HMRC is facing calls to get involved, with Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury committee, asking for its response to the commission\u2019s judgment. In a letter to John-Paul Marks, the permanent secretary of HMRC, Hillier sought assurances that the tax authority was \u201cseized of the importance\u201d of the case and asked whether the tax authority had requested an unredacted copy of the commission\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n

The Times and Daily Mail have reported that City\u2019s appeal will be based on evidence the club claim proves their sponsorship deals were funded by the Abu Dhabi government and not the club. The commission rejected that argument<\/a> as \u201cuntrue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Paragraph 77 of the judgment states: \u201cWe concluded that it was an \u2018explanation\u2019 that the club had concocted well after the event in an attempt to obscure and conceal the realities of the Disguised Funding Scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Burnham has history with the Premier League which he mentioned in Wednesday\u2019s interviews by referencing his criticisms of their prosecution of his club, Everton, for financial rule breaches after they were docked 10 points<\/a> \u2013 reduced to six on appeal \u2013 by an independent commission three years ago.<\/p>\n

In November 2023, Burnham, when mayor of Greater Manchester, wrote to the Premier League chair, Alison Brittain, accusing the league of an \u201cabuse of process\u201d and claimed Everton<\/a> were being used as a pawn in efforts to show an independent regulator was not required in football.<\/p>\n

Burnham made similar complaints on Wednesday despite Everton having admitted breaching profitability and sustainability rules, with the club contesting only the extent of the breach and sanction. \u201cI remember people proclaiming Everton guilty at the time and, with hindsight, I think more people would say that wasn\u2019t fair the way that was handled,\u201d he said. \u201cI still hold the view very firmly that they weren\u2019t fairly treated in that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Andy Burnham with the Manchester City chair, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, at Vincent Kompany\u2019s testimonial in 2019. Photograph: PA Images\/Alamy Live News<\/p>\n

The Premier League was unhappy with Burnham\u2019s behaviour in 2023, particularly as his office posted on X two letters of complaint he sent to the league, but did not publicise replies sent by Brittain that explained the competition\u2019s financial regulations governance process.<\/p>\n

The IFR chief executive, David Kogan, has made clear he will not tolerate political interference in his role, telling the Times last year that he would resign if he sensed government pressure.<\/p>\n

The City case has the potential to present an early test of his mettle and the IFR\u2019s powers, given Burnham\u2019s previous working relationship with the club\u2019s owner, the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), and the \u00a325bn annual UK-Abu Dhabi trading relationship. One of Burnham\u2019s first calls after he succeeded Sir Keir Starmer in July was with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates and the ultimate owner of ADUG.<\/p>\n

Kogan confirmed the IFR was monitoring the case and has powers \u201cto assess the suitability of owners, directors and executives\u201d to protect \u201chonesty and integrity of English football where there is clear evidence of wrongdoing by individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n

City\u2019s owners are unlikely to fall foul of the licensing system that will be introduced next season, because that is an assessment of financial sustainability and separate from the new owners, directors and senior executives test, which the IFR uses to examine honesty and integrity.<\/p>\n

The Premier League and IFR declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham\u2019s intervention in the Manchester City debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-788786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788786","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=788786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}