October 12: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised to release details of his meetings with Manchester City figures.
Burnham has been under pressure following comments he made following City’s guilty verdict. A Premier League panel found the club guilty of breaching the league’s financial rules on an industrial scale. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch demanded Burnham, formerly mayor of Greater Manchester, release details of his meetings with city officials.
“The Leader of the Opposition has asked me to release the details of my meetings, which I’m happy to do and I will,” Burnham told the Rest is History podcast. “I will explain clearly everything I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester.”
“Actually, none of this is recent, as far as the meetings that I had. I actually only had one significant meeting, and that was in 2021.”
“But the football issues are serious and must be dealt with, and the process is independent and must run its course. But I think everyone should separate the investment issues because they are not the same.”
Burnham had first expressed “real concern” if Manchester City’s owners decided to sell them following the guilty verdict before the number ten clarified that “if an offense is established, those responsible should face appropriate consequences”.
City have been found guilty of inflating their books over a nine-year period by more than £900m by creating “bogus” contracts in what is the biggest scandal in British club football history. The club has maintained its innocence and has appealed the decision.
Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday, in their first game since the first guilty verdict.
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