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It has come to light that Andy Burnham, during his tenure as mayor of Greater Manchester, attended two hospitality dinners with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the chairman of Manchester City Football Club. These dinners occurred at separate home matches in 2017 and 2018, yet this information was not included in a statement issued on Monday by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) that detailed his interactions with the club.
Burnham’s association with Manchester City has been under scrutiny following the club’s recent guilty verdict for systematically breaking Premier League financial regulations—a decision the club is currently appealing. After stepping down as mayor in June, Burnham stirred controversy last month when he expressed concern over the possibility of the club’s owners selling Manchester City. The GMCA issued a statement outlining Burnham’s known engagements with the club, noting a formal meeting with Al Mubarak in October 2021 during the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit, arranged by the Department for International Trade, as well as an informal encounter at a 2019 testimonial match for former player Vincent Kompany.
While the GMCA statement mentioned that Burnham was a guest of Manchester City at several home games in his official capacity as mayor, it did not clarify that these occasions included two hospitality dinners with the club chairman. Records previously accessible on the GMCA’s register of declarations, reviewed by the BBC, revealed a dinner alongside then-Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese and the club chairman during an Everton match at the Etihad Stadium in August 2017, valued at approximately £300. Another entry listed a dinner at the Man City versus Manchester United derby in April 2018, with hospitality valued around £699. Burnham had declared these dinners, as well as a pair of Ed Sheeran concert tickets in May 2018 worth £150. However, this register has since been removed from the GMCA website, reportedly because the authority’s policy is to publish declarations only from the current mayoral term.
The BBC sought clarification from GMCA on this policy due to the presence of records dating back to 2022 on its website, despite the fact that the current mayoral term began in 2024. Meanwhile, Downing Street defended the hospitality received by Burnham, emphasizing that the dinners were part of hospitality at home games and had been declared accordingly, rather than constituting separate meetings with the club chairman. Political pressure to disclose full details of Burnham’s past dealings with Manchester City is intensifying. Tory shadow sports minister Louie French insisted that Burnham had promised full transparency about his contacts with the club, especially in light of his contentious comments. Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick went further, accusing Burnham of attempting to hide extensive links to the club’s owners. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has repeatedly called for the government to release all records of meetings between the prime minister and senior Manchester City figures.
Burnham, on the podcast “Rest Is Politics,” expressed his willingness to reveal everything related to his previous role as mayor, stating, “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.” Responding during Prime Minister’s Questions about whether anyone from the club discussed their charges with him or his team, Burnham said they had not. Facing ongoing scrutiny, he affirmed to MPs his readiness to make full details public and referred to the GMCA statement as a comprehensive account of his key dealings with Manchester City’s owners. When reporters queried why the two dinners were excluded from that statement and what distinguished “everything” from “key dealings,” Burnham’s press secretary directed them back to the GMCA statement. The list of meetings published by GMCA did not specify the content of discussions, and the BBC has asked the authority for clarification on why the dinners were omitted.
Manchester City, a dominant force in English football for many years, was found guilty in September by an independent commission of breaching financial regulations over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018. The inquiry concluded that the club had created “sham” contracts with commercial partners to covertly funnel over £830 million into their football operations. While sanctions have yet to be imposed, the club denies wrongdoing and is appealing the verdict. Earlier this month, Sir Richard Leese, who led Manchester City Council for 25 years until 2021, defended a decade-old agreement between the council and Manchester City’s owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG). According to a University of Sheffield report, the land leased to ADUG under this partnership was provided at rates “below comparable” to the market
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