The U.K. prime minister — and former Greater Manchester mayor — praises the under-fire Premier League club’s Emirati ownership as “huge partner” in building up the city.
LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would be “really concerned” should Manchester City’s Emirati owners sell up after the club was found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules.
An independent commission found the club guilty of a majority of the charges they faced, including arranging “sham contracts” with commercial partners as part of a scheme to disguise more than £830 million of secret funding.
The club continues to deny any wrongdoing and has until Oct. 2 to appeal.
But Burnham, an Everton fan who served as mayor of Greater Manchester before becoming prime minister, praised the achievements of the Abu Dhabi United Group, which has owned the club since 2008 and is led by United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“I would be really concerned to lose them,” Burnham told the BBC. “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.
“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.”
The prime minister said he will not intervene in any disciplinary process despite the suggestion that punishing City could have a significant impact on U.K-Abu Dhabi trading relations.
Burnham said he was “of course” confident his own interactions with City’s owners when he was mayor would stand up to scrutiny.