Andy Burnham has said he would be "really concerned" if Manchester City's owners decide to sell up after the club was found guilty of Premier League financial rule breaches. The prime minister said the situation was "contested by Manchester City" and he praised the club's owners since 2008 - led by Sheikh Mansour, United Arab Emirates deputy prime minister and royal family member - for investing in Manchester. An independent commission found the club had breached the majority of the Premier League financial rules they were accused of breaking, a verdict that City are expected to appeal.
The club continue to deny any wrongdoing and have until 2 October to submit an appeal. It comes as the Independent Football Regulator – set up by the government in 2025 – said the case had raised "serious issues". The regulator suggested it would be exploring options – including whether to strip the owners of their licence to own the club – once the disciplinary process was completed.
Among the independent panel's findings were that City arranged "sham contracts" with a number of commercial partners as part of a scheme to disguise secret funding of more than £830m. The Premier League said City "systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade". The independent panel will hold a sanctions hearing – which could take months to convene – to decide the punishment.
City can appeal both the guilty verdicts and the sanction, leaving City and the league in a state of chaos and uncertainty. The punishment could range from a huge fine, being deducted points or ejected from the Premier League, to being stripped of the eight trophies they had won in the affected period. Some fans and pundits have questioned how the club's owners can carry on if they deliberately breached rules over the course of nine years.
Asked by the BBC's political editor Chris Mason if he was concerned that Manchester City's owners would now sell the club, Burham said on Wednesday: "I would be really concerned to lose them. "They've been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and obviously the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is." Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester until June, added: "I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn't just put into the Etihad [Stadium] and the campus around it but also into the city". He said he was "of course" confident that his own interactions with City's owners when he was mayor would stand up to scrutiny.
Burnham made his comments amid widespread shock in football about the scale of the independent commission's findings – and the strength of Premier League comments about City's actions. Burnham was speaking to the BBC from Hill Dickinson Stadium, the home of Everton, the team he supports. Everton had their own run in with Premier League financial rules when they were charged and deducted 10 points for more minor breaches in November 2023, reduced to six on appeal.
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