Andy Burnham held a formal meeting with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak during an investment conference, spoke with him from the stands at a star player’s testimonial fixture and was accompanied by representatives from the club during official overseas visits.
Information regarding the Prime Minister’s dealings with the scandal-hit club and its Abu Dhabi owners throughout his tenure as Greater Manchester mayor was disclosed by the combined authority.
If follows criticism of Burnham after he said he would be “really concerned” if City’s Abu Dhabi owners sold the club after the club was found to have breached the Premier League’s financial rules by an independent commission, crediting them with being “a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester”.
City have been found guilty of breaching Premier League financial regulations between 2009 and 2018.
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The club maintained their innocence and appealed against the verdict.
Downing Street was forced to issue two clarifications of Burnham’s position, with a spokesperson for the PM insisting the guilty verdict against the club is “serious”.
Mr Burnham told MPs that “all of my dealings” with Manchester City’s owners would be published.
A Greater Manchester Combined Authority spokesman said: “In October 2021 Andy Burnham, in his role as mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Mr Burnham faced calls to “keep politics out of football”, with the case set to proceed to an appeal board and a sanctions hearing, and demands from opposition leaders, including Kemi Badenoch, to publish “everything” related to his work with the club as Greater Manchester mayor.
The Premier League said an independent commission found City arranged “sham” commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were required to pay only a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The commission found that the remainder was funded by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, which majority-owned the club.
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