U.K. prime minister Andy Burnham responded to news of Manchester City being found guilty of 114 out of the 115 Premier League charges against the club with calls for calm.
“I think these are reports at this stage,” Burnham told ITV Granada Reports. “But if they’re confirmed, obviously I will want to look at the report of the independent commission.”
Any punishment for City is some time off. An appeal is expected, and the process that has dragged on for five years since the original investigation began will not be resolved soon.
There have already been calls to strip the club of its titles, either those won during the nine-year period the charges relate to, or in totality since the 2008 takeover.
“People shouldn’t jump to those kinds of conclusions,” Burnham warned. “I know, this has been a long process between the club and the Premier League, I think quite a contested process. So I don’t think it’s as simple as jumping to conclusions.
“I think we would all need to study the independent commission’s report in some considerable detail before reaching any conclusions.”
The response appears level-headed, but also laced in diplomacy. This is not a hardline stance.
Why Andy Burnham Has Reason to Be Grateful to Abu Dhabi, UAE
Burnham’s relationship with the Manchester City ownership—and by extension Abu Dhabi and UAE—runs deep.
In his previous role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, an office he held from 2017 until this past summer, Burnham watched the areas around the Etihad Campus develop.
When he met UAE president Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan—City owner Shekih Mansour’s brother—in July, a Downing Street statement said the prime minister “thanked His Highness for his country’s investment into Manchester and the incredible impact it has had on the city.”
Other comments about his gratitude for UAE investment in Manchester have surfaced.
“Go to east Manchester now, and look at photographs of it 30 years ago. A large amount of the investment has come in from the owners of Manchester City, so they are more than building a football club,” Burnham said while appearing on Pod Save the UK a few years ago.
U.K. Balancing Politics, Diplomacy
But that clip was posted with the description, “Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham skirts question on Abu Dhabi human rights.”
Abu Dhabi is one of the seven Emirati city states that make up the United Arab Emirates, a country with untold riches and ambition, but with a human rights record that is still regularly questioned.
When pressed during that podcast episode, Burnham seemingly felt unable to call out a regime where, among other things, homosexuality remains criminalized. Manchester prides itself on being a progressive city and has done so for centuries.
“I hear what people say [about Abu Dhabi]. I’ve got to judge on what I see in Manchester, how I see the owners run Manchester City and what they do to improve life here,” Burnham said at the time. “Those issues are for the government to raise at a different level. They’ve been huge partners for the city and they’ve improved a lot of lives here.”
Knowing the regenerative effect on his city, alongside human rights issues, and with Manchester City reportedly guilty of cheating their way to the top—it’s an uncomfortable position to be in, especially now that he is prime minister and he is the “government” who can raise such issues.
In addition to being Manchester City’s principal owner, Sheikh Mansour is the deputy prime minister of Abu Dhabi and the vice-president of the UAE. Since 2007, he has also chaired his country’s sovereign wealth fund that has U.K. investments. Relations between the gulf nation and the United Kingdom have been strained in the past. That has started to change. However, as the Financial Times puts it, “those diplomatic ties are being tested afresh” by the City verdict.
It was reported by Bloomberg in August that Emirati officials had been in touch with British counterparts to express concern over the looming Premier League charges and seemingly the impact a guilty verdict might have on future relations.
U.K. culture secretary Lisa Nandy gave a sterner response in the wake of the reported verdict. “We welcome investment to English football from all over the world. But the rules of the game are not set by investors,” Nandy told BBC Radio 4.
“Investors are custodians of our football club, and they have a responsibility to uphold the rules of the game, to hand on their clubs and the game in better shape than the one that they left it, and it's not for them to set the rules of the game,” she added. “I say that with no comment to the individual owners of Manchester City, but just as a general rule.
“Football belongs to its fans, and the Premier League sets its own rules with its clubs, and it needs to sort this out and sort this out as quickly as possible.”
