Andy Burnham vowed to fight Manchester City’s corner in their battle with the Premier League to ensure the club received “fair” treatment, it has emerged.

During his time as mayor of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham said the Premier League had “proved that they can’t properly regulate football”.

City face sanctions that could include relegation from the Premier League after the club was found guilty of 114 breaches of financial rules by an independent commission. Mr Burnham made the comments before the decision was announced.

The Prime Minister’s relationship with the club’s Emirati owners is under scrutiny, because the United Arab Emirates (UAE) invested billions in Manchester, helping deliver the “Manchester miracle” of economic growth that propelled Mr Burnham to Downing Street.

Last month, Mr Burnham said he would be “really concerned” if City’s Emirati owners sold the club, because they had been “a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester”. He was later forced to reverse his stance, with Downing Street insisting no team was “above the rules”.

In 2024, Mr Burnham told the Manchester Evening News: “Absolutely I will support Manchester City in securing fair and consistent treatment, and transparent treatment. I think that’s the issue that the Premier League need to reassure everybody on, that it’s going to be done in a fair way, in a consistent way.

“We don’t know yet because there’s not much in the public domain, but obviously I will absolutely represent both Manchester clubs as best I can when they need my support. Obviously, on the basis of challenging where things have been done unfairly or wrongly, that’s what I will do.”

Mr Burnham, a lifelong Everton fan, accused the Premier League of “making it up as they go along” when his team were deducted eight points for breaching the league’s financial rules in 2023.

‘They’ve proved they can’t regulate’

He repeatedly posted on social media letters that he had written to the Premier League complaining about its treatment of Everton. In 2024, Mr Burnham said: “They’ve proved they can’t regulate. They’ve proved they cannot do it fairly, openly and transparently.”

Sources with knowledge of Mr Burnham’s interactions with the football authorities said they were not aware of Mr Burnham lobbying the Premier League over Manchester City.

Earlier this week it emerged that Mr Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Manchester City’s chairman, who is also the chief executive of an Emirati sovereign wealth fund. The dinners had not originally been included in a statement by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority about Mr Burnham’s meetings with the club.

After coming under pressure from Kemi Badenoch, Mr Burnham said he would publish all details of his correspondence with City. On Thursday, he said he had asked the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to carry out a manual trawl of its records to find any and all relevant meetings he had had.

The Prime Minister was accused by the Conservatives of being “completely out of touch” when he made the comments about being “concerned” if City’s owners pulled out.

In response, Downing Street issued a clarification saying no one was “above the rules”.

Mr Burnham has faced wider questions over his relationship with the UAE since City was found guilty. The Telegraph reported last week that he oversaw a £55m taxpayer loan to UAE-owned businesses while he was mayor of Greater Manchester.

The money was awarded to three Jersey-based property companies ultimately controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, the owner of City, and was used on property developments in Manchester. There is no suggestion the arrangement broke any rules.

The guilty verdict has triggered a diplomatic rift between the UAE and Britain. Earlier this month the Gulf state threatened to pull billions of pounds of investment out of the UK in retaliation, in a potential blow to plans for a new hi-tech hub between Oxford and Cambridge.

Manchester City deny wrongdoing and have made clear their intention to appeal against the decision of the independent commission, which found that the club had used “sham contracts” to disguise secret funding of more than £830m.

Downing Street was contacted for comment.