UK PM defends comments on Man City verdict

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has defended his comments on Manchester City’s guilty verdict, saying the football case and the investment the club’s owners have brought to Manchester are two different things.

After City were found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules, Burnham told the BBC he would be “really concerned” if the club’s Abu Dhabi owners sold up, and called them a huge partner in building modern Manchester. The remarks drew criticism, and Downing Street clarified that the Prime Minister regards the judgment as serious and that nobody is above the rules. Burnham later said he had not downplayed the findings.

Speaking on The Rest Is Politics podcast, he said he did not think he had misspoken, explaining that his mind had been on the Labour Party conference when he gave the interviews. “The football issues are different from the investment issues,” he said, and added that people should not mix the two up. He said the findings of the independent commission are serious and that the process is independent and must run its course.

Burnham also agreed to publish details of his meetings with City’s owners as Greater Manchester mayor, after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged him to publish everything. He said none of it was recent and that he had only one significant meeting, in 2021. Shadow sports minister Louie French has asked him to also come clean about any contact since he became Prime Minister.

BBC Sport reported that some Premier League clubs were astonished by his stance and worried about political interference in City’s appeal. Burnham, an Everton supporter, was mayor of Greater Manchester for nine years before becoming Prime Minister.

An independent commission found City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges after a 42-day hearing, over breaches between 2009 and 2018, including what it described as sham sponsorship deals. City deny wrongdoing and have appealed, and a separate independent appeal board will hear the case.

Sources: BBC Sport reports carried by Yahoo, ESPN, LBC and PA/dpa, October 2026.