Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has agreed to make details of his past dealings with Manchester City’s top officials public as questions grow over his response to the club’s financial rule breaches.
Burnham made the commitment while speaking on the podcast The Rest Is Politics, following a ruling by an independent commission that found Manchester City guilty of multiple Premier League financial regulation breaches.
The issue has attracted political attention, with Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch calling for details of meetings between Burnham and the club’s leadership to be released.
Burnham said: “The leader of the opposition has asked me to disclose the details of the meetings, and I am happy to do so. I will clearly disclose all aspects of my cooperation with them during my time as Mayor of Greater Manchester. In fact, these meetings are not recent. There was only one significant meeting, which took place in 2021.”
The commission’s findings covered the period between 2009 and 2018. It concluded that the club had breached financial rules and referred to more than £830m allegedly channelled into football operations through “fictitious” commercial agreements.
Burnham faced backlash after saying he would be “very concerned” if Manchester City’s owners decided to sell the club and withdraw their investment. He later disputed claims that his remarks “played down the seriousness of the ruling.”
His comments reportedly caused unease among some Premier League clubs, which feared that political involvement could influence the handling of the case.
Manchester City has not been handed any sanctions so far and has challenged the ruling through an appeal. The club returned to action on Sunday with a 3-0 victory away to Liverpool.
Burnham held the Greater Manchester mayoral position from 2017 until earlier this year. While in office, he encouraged investment from Gulf countries to support the region’s economic growth, continuing an approach that had begun before his election as the first mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Addressing the controversy surrounding his earlier remarks, Burnham said: “I don’t think I said anything wrong. What I mean is, at the time, I didn’t take all these issues into account. My focus was on the Labour Party conference, and the interviews at the time were centered on the conference. Moreover, I didn’t connect the two things; it was the questions in the interview that connected them. I want to be clear that these two things are completely separate. Football-related issues and investment-related issues are two different matters. Some people will try to conflate the two, but in my opinion, that shouldn’t happen. The football-level issues identified by the independent commission are serious, and I acknowledged that in that interview.”
The Premier League’s case against Manchester City was considered independently. A 42-day hearing took place in 2024, with the commission announcing its decision last month.
The club was found to have breached the rules on all charges except one relating to alleged non-cooperation with the league’s investigation.
The commission said in its report: “Several key witnesses for the club provided false testimony on crucial matters, with some making false and dishonest statements despite knowing them to be untrue.”
Manchester City’s challenge will now be examined by a separate independent appeals committee, while the club maintains that it has done nothing wrong.
