PM Andy Burnham Says He'd Be 'Really Concerned' If Man City's Abu Dhabi Owners Sell After Guilty Verdict

Since the independent commission's September 28 verdict finding Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 Premier League financial charges, the issue has reached government circles. On Wednesday, September 30, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he would be "really concerned" if City's owners decided to sell the club, according to the BBC.

Burnham, who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, praised the ownership group led by Sheikh Mansour, the United Arab Emirates deputy prime minister, for what he called its investment "into Manchester" since taking over the club in 2008. "I do actually thank the City Football Group and the wider ownership for the money that they didn't just put into the Etihad and the campus around it but also into the city," he told the BBC's political editor Chris Mason.

What the Verdict Actually Found

The independent panel concluded City arranged "sham contracts" with commercial sponsors covering the 2009-10 through 2017-18 seasons, according to the Liverpool Echo. Under the scheme, sponsors were only required to pay a portion of their stated fees, with the remainder secretly funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, the company that owns the club, the Echo reported.

The BBC put the total disguised funding at more than £830 million. A separate summary via Ground News cited the Premier League's own characterization that the sham deals let City inflate revenue and understate costs by more than £900 million over nearly a decade. The £830 million figure appears to describe the hidden sponsorship funding itself, while the £900 million figure describes the broader revenue-and-cost distortion. Neither the Premier League nor City has published a single reconciled number, and readers should treat both figures as describing overlapping but not identical things.

The Premier League said City "systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade." City continues to deny wrongdoing and has until Friday, October 2, to file its appeal of the guilty verdict, according to the BBC and Sports Business Journal.

The Regulator Steps In

The Independent Football Regulator, created by the UK government in 2025, said the case raised "serious issues," the BBC reported. The regulator has signaled it will examine whether City's owners should keep their license to run the club, but only once the Premier League's disciplinary process, including any appeal, concludes. Sports Business Journal noted the regulator has the power to force an owner to sell if serious wrongdoing is confirmed.

A sanctions hearing to determine punishment could take months to even convene, the BBC reported. Possible penalties range from a large fine to points deductions, stripping of the eight trophies City won during the affected years, or expulsion from the league. City can appeal both the guilty verdict and whatever sanction eventually follows.

Burnham's Caution, and the Everton Comparison

Asked whether the UAE government's ownership group might now walk away, Burnham said he would "keep my distance" if the UAE government made representations to him directly, according to the Liverpool Echo. He also declined to prejudge the outcome, pointing to his own experience fighting Everton's 10-point deduction in 2023, which was later reduced to six points on appeal.

"The Premier League proclaimed [Everton] guilty and I never accepted that, and therefore it would be somewhat wrong of me to leap to judgment on another football club," Burnham told 5 News, per the Echo. "But they're very serious charges, don't get me wrong."

That caution cuts against critics who argue Burnham is too close to City's ownership to speak neutrally. Some fans and pundits, cited by the BBC, have asked how City's owners can continue running the club after a panel found they deliberately breached financial rules over nine seasons. Burnham's defenders would note he applied the same skepticism to Everton's guilty finding in 2023, a case where the Premier League's initial 10-point penalty was ultimately cut nearly in half on appeal, suggesting Premier League disciplinary rulings don't always survive review intact.

Burnham said he was confident his own dealings with City's owners while serving as Greater Manchester mayor would "stand up to scrutiny." No investigation into Burnham's own conduct has been announced by any regulator or law enforcement body.

The next concrete deadline is October 2, when City's appeal is due. After that, the timeline runs on the independent panel's own clock, with no fixed date yet for when a sanctions hearing will even be scheduled.