12th October 2026
October 12 – UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to publish details of his meetings with senior Manchester City figures.
Burnham has been under pressure following comments he made after 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, previously the mayor of Greater Manchester, release details of his meetings with City officials.
“I’ve been asked by the leader of the opposition to publish details of my meetings, which I’m happy to do and I’m going to,” Burnham told the Rest is History podcast. “I will quite clearly put out there everything that I have done working with them in my previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester.”
“None of it is recent, actually, in terms of the meetings I had. I only had one significant meeting actually, and that was in 2021.”
“But the football issues, they are serious and have to be dealt with, and the process is independent and it has to run its course. But I think everybody should separate the investment issues because they’re not the same thing.”
Burnham had first expressed ‘real concern’ if Manchester City’s owners decided to sell up following the guilty verdict before number ten clarified that “if wrongdoing is established, those responsible should face the appropriate consequences”.
City have been found guilty of inflating their books over a nine-year period by more than £900 million by creating ‘sham’ contracts in what is the greatest scandal in the history of British club football. The club has maintained its innocence and appealed the decision.
On Sunday, in their first match following the first guilty verdict, Manchester City defeated Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield in the Premier League.
Contact the writer of this story at samindra.kunti@insideworldfootball.com