Burnham 'really concerned' over losing Man City owners after 114-charge guilty verdict

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has admitted he would be “really concerned” if Manchester City’s owners were forced out of the club, after City were found guilty of 114 of the 115 Premier League financial rule breaches levelled against them.

The independent commission found that City had arranged “sham” contracts to disguise secret funding of more than £830 million over a nine-year period spanning the 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons. The Independent Football Regulator has since threatened to examine the “suitability” of the club’s owners, placing Abu Dhabi United Group and Sheikh Mansour directly in the spotlight.

Burnham, speaking in a BBC interview, drew on his time as Mayor of Manchester to explain his personal stake in the outcome. “I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn’t just put into the Etihad and the campus around it but also into the city,” he said. “I would be really concerned to lose them. They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester.”

Despite those sentiments, Burnham — an Everton fan — was careful to avoid prejudging the case, pointing to his own experience of Everton’s six-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules as a cautionary tale. “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,” he said. “So it would be wrong of me to leap to one side.”

City have continued to protest their innocence and have until 2 October to lodge a formal appeal against the verdict, meaning the process is expected to run considerably longer. Burnham acknowledged that ongoing timeline as a key reason for his restraint.

“I have to keep my distance from it,” he said. “It would be wrong for me to do anything else. It’s an independent legal process that has to play its course through. Because it’s still contested by Manchester City, I think it’s right that I don’t say much more.”

The verdict and its potential consequences have rapidly escalated beyond the football world, drawing in political figures and raising questions about the future ownership structure of one of England’s most successful clubs of the past decade.