UK Prime Minister to Publish Details of His Meetings With Man City After Backlash Over Verdict Comments

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he will make public details of his past meetings with senior figures at Manchester City. He agreed to do so after criticism of how he reacted when the English football club was found guilty of breaking the Premier League's financial rules.

Burnham spoke on The Rest Is Politics podcast after the opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch of the Conservative Party, called on his office at 10 Downing Street to release all records of his meetings with the club's top people. He said he was happy to do it and would put out everything he did with City in his old job as mayor of Greater Manchester, the region around the city. He added that none of it was recent and that he only had one significant meeting with them, in 2021.

The questions come because City are owned by a group from Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, and Burnham was mayor during the club's most successful years. He held the job from 2017 until earlier this year and pushed for investment from Gulf countries to help grow the local economy.

An independent commission found that City broke the rules over nine years, from 2009 to 2018. It said the club used "sham" deals with business partners to secretly move more than £830 million (roughly $1.1 billion) into its football operations. The Premier League is England's top football division, and the panel was separate from the league itself.

The trouble for Burnham started when he told the BBC he would be "really concerned" if City's owners chose to sell the club after the verdict. He later said he had not played down how serious the findings were. Some other Premier League clubs were not convinced. Sources told BBC Sport they were "astonished" and worried about political interference in City's appeal.

Burnham defended himself on the podcast. "I don't think I misspoke," he said. He explained that his mind was on the Labour Party's annual conference at the time and that interviewers had linked two issues that should be kept apart: football matters and investment matters. He said the commission's findings were serious, as he had stated in the interview.

The commission held a 42-day hearing in 2024 and announced its verdict last month. City were found guilty on every charge except one, which was about not cooperating with the league's investigation. The report also said several important club witnesses gave false evidence, and that some did so knowingly. City still deny any wrongdoing.

No punishment has been announced yet. City have appealed, and a separate independent board will hear the case. 

On Sunday they played their first match since the verdict and beat Liverpool 3-0.