Andy Burnham is facing calls from the Liberal Democrats to publish details of all his meetings with Manchester City’s owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), and declare all hospitality he has accepted at the Etihad Stadium.
The prime minister was widely criticised this week for saying he would be “really concerned” if ADUG were forced to sell City after being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial regulations, which led to Downing Street issuing two clarifications of his position on Thursday.
Burnham also praised ADUG’s investment in Manchester, having had close relations with the company, through which Sheikh Mansour bought City in 2008, during nine years as the mayor of Greater Manchester which ended when he returned to parliament this summer.
In a strongly-worded letter to Burnham the Lib Dems’ spokesperson for culture, media and sport, Anna Sabine, criticised his apparent defence of City as “extraordinary” and invoked Gianni Infantino’s aborted World Cup sell-off scheme in what she described as a difficult year for football.
“As you will know, an independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of 114 charges of breaching financial rules over a timeframe of nearly a decade, including the use of ‘sham contracts’ and schemes to disguise more than £830m of funding,” Sabine writes in a letter seen by the Guardian.
“Despite this, your response was to thank the club’s owners for their work and describe the findings as ‘contested’ and that it was ‘wrong to jump to a conclusion’. It is extraordinary that a prime minister would use his position to call into question the findings of the independent investigation, and risk undermining trust in the Premier League’s processes.
“This has been a difficult year for football’s reputation. Fifa’s conduct around the World Cup has already raised serious questions about integrity in the game we love. At a moment like this, fans expect their prime minister to stand up for the rules in place, not to appear to side with a club found guilty of breaking them.”
Sabine also told the Guardian that Burnham’s ties to ADUG should be scrutinised and is planning to write to Downing Street and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to demand details of their meetings.
“Football fans up and down the country deserve to know that the rules apply to everyone, however rich and powerful they are,” Sabine said. “When the prime minister leaps to the defence of a club’s owners within hours of a verdict, people are entitled to ask what their relationship is.
“Andy Burnham must come clean and publish details of every meeting and conversation he has had with City Football Group, Abu Dhabi United Group or UAE government representatives, going back to his time as mayor – and that includes any hospitality freebies received.”
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Burnham, an Everton fan, has been pictured attending City games at the Etihad Stadium in hospitality areas.
The extent of that hospitality is unclear because under GMCA regulations the public disclosure of gifts is available for current office holders without the submission of a freedom of information request.
Burnham has not been to a City game since he became prime minister but has attended two Everton matches at Hill Dickinson Stadium, where he was accommodated in the directors’ box despite having a season ticket in the South Stand.
City confirmed on Friday that they had appealed against an independent commission’s verdict. They repeated their assessment that the verdict “contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe”.
