Burnham ‘Really Concerned’ if Man City Owners Sell After Guilty Verdict

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, that he would be “really concerned” if Manchester City‘s Abu Dhabi owners decided to sell the club, days after an independent Premier League commission found City guilty of 114 of the 115 financial-rule charges brought against it. Burnham’s comments, delivered to BBC News, mark the first major political reaction to the verdict and come as City faces a separate sanctions hearing that could still result in a fine, a points deduction, or another sporting punishment.

“I would be really concerned to lose them,” Burnham told BBC News. “They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and obviously the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is.” Burnham added that he was “not getting directly involved in the process,” saying: “I have to keep myself at arm’s length from it.”

What Manchester City Were Found Guilty Of

The Premier League confirmed the verdict in an official statement published on its website, saying the independent commission found that Manchester City’s conduct was designed “to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900 million during the affected period, to appear to comply with financial rules.” The case covers a nine-season period stretching from 2009 to 2018.

According to The Guardian’s review of the commission’s written findings, published September 29, City’s sponsorship arrangements were determined to be “shams” built on “disguised funding” that concealed equity contributions from the club’s owner, Abu Dhabi United Group. The BBC reported that the scheme “gave the misleading impression to third parties (including regulators and its auditors) in its financial statements and any required FFP returns that its commercial revenues from sponsorship agreements were far, far greater than was in fact the case.”

Specific commercial deals named in analysis of the case include City’s headline shirt sponsorship with Etihad Airways and additional arrangements involving Etisalat, the UAE telecoms group, according to a detailed case breakdown published by legal analysis site The Esk. The same analysis also referenced Aabar and ADTCA as entities connected to the alleged disguised-funding structure, though the Premier League’s own public statement has focused on the overall scale of the inflated revenue rather than listing every individual sponsor by name.

Of the 115 charges the Premier League brought against City in February 2023, the club was found guilty on 114, with reports from The Athletic, CNN and the TBS News Network confirming the single charge not upheld did not alter the overall finding of systemic rule-breaking across nearly a decade. No punishment has yet been decided: the Premier League confirmed that sanctions will be determined in a separate hearing before the same independent commission, meaning City’s ultimate penalty remains unresolved as of September 30.

City Confirms Appeal by Friday Deadline

Manchester City said it would appeal the verdict “on the basis that the opinion contains clear material errors of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe,” according to reporting relayed by The Guardian. The club has a deadline of Friday, October 2, 2026, to lodge that appeal, with City maintaining throughout the process that it has done nothing wrong.

City chief executive Ferran Soriano told a meeting of the European Football Clubs board on Monday, September 28, that the club would “fight to prove their innocence,” according to The Guardian’s report on that meeting. Soriano has separately been reported describing the guilty verdicts as reflecting what he called a “Premier League conspiracy theory,” per the same outlet’s ongoing coverage of the case, a framing that echoes the club’s consistent public position since the charges were first laid in February 2023.

City’s legal position is complicated by a partial win it secured in June 2025, when an arbitration panel found parts of the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction rules — covering shareholder loans and the broader APT framework as then written — to be unlawful. That ruling did not resolve the separate 115-charge case, and the commission’s September 2026 verdict makes clear the core financial-conduct findings against City stand independently of the APT ruling.

Burnham’s Comments: Context and Motivation

Burnham’s remarks, given to BBC News on September 30, came in direct response to questions about whether City’s Abu Dhabi-based ownership group, led by chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, might walk away from the club in the wake of the verdict. Burnham framed City’s owners as central to Manchester’s redevelopment over the past two decades, citing the transformation of the Etihad Campus and the surrounding east Manchester area as evidence of the group’s broader civic investment.

His comments were echoed in similar terms by the Reuters news agency and the Daily Mail, both of which quoted Burnham praising the ownership group’s civic investment even as he declined to comment on the substance of the guilty findings. The mayor’s intervention is notable because it is one of the first public statements from a senior regional political figure since the verdict was confirmed, illustrating how the case now reaches beyond football governance and into local economic and political territory.

Manchester City’s ownership, through City Football Group, has invested heavily in the Etihad Campus, the club’s training facilities, and wider regeneration projects in the area surrounding the stadium since the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008. Burnham’s comments suggest local political leaders view that investment as separate from, and potentially at risk because of, the outcome of the Premier League’s disciplinary process.

Guardiola Issues First Statement Since Verdict

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola broke his silence on the case on Wednesday, posting a message of support for the club on social media. “I want every single Manchester City fan across the world to know I am here; more than ever,” Guardiola wrote. “I am, always have been, always will be behind my club, my owner, my chairman, Ferran, the players, staff, Enzo and you, our unique supporters. Let me be clear: we will get through this together. I love you all.”

ESPN reported the statement as Guardiola’s first public comment since the commission’s findings were confirmed. It was also carried by Al Jazeera, Yahoo Sports and Khel Now, among other outlets, underscoring the scale of global interest in City’s manager weighing in on a case that has hung over the club since the charges were first announced more than three years ago.

Guardiola’s statement echoes comments he made when the charges were first laid in 2023, when he said: “In the end, I know fairly that what we won we won on the pitch. We don’t have any doubts,” according to background compiled in an encyclopedia entry documenting the case’s timeline. He has repeated variations of that defense throughout the proceedings, consistently backing the club’s ownership publicly even as the legal process dragged into its fourth year.

Haaland ‘Unaffected,’ Norway Teammate Says

Norway defender Kristoffer Ajer said City striker Erling Haaland had been unaffected by the verdict, according to ESPN. Haaland was set to play for Norway for the first time since the ruling was delivered, in a Thursday fixture as Norway continue their UEFA Nations League campaign. Haaland himself had not issued a personal public statement on the case as of September 30, based on the sources reviewed for this article.

The case has cast a shadow over City’s squad throughout the 2026-27 Premier League season, even as the club has continued to compete at the top of the table. City’s recent domestic form, including a 4-1 win over Crystal Palace featuring a two-goal display from summer signing Rayan Cherki, has offered supporters a measure of on-pitch stability while the off-field case has played out.

How Rivals Have Responded

Rival clubs had pushed for the commission’s verdict to be published promptly once it was reached, The Guardian reported on September 28, ahead of the formal confirmation. A club source quoted by the newspaper said: “All we have is a void, and it would be better for everyone if it was filled as soon as possible.” The same report named Jean-Claude Blanc, head of Ineos Sport and Manchester United‘s chief of international football relations, and Everton owner Dan Friedkin among executives on the European Football Clubs board who had been tracking the case closely, though neither was quoted directly demanding a specific punishment.

Soriano’s own comments to that same board meeting — reasserting City’s innocence just a day before the formal verdict was confirmed — underline how contested the case remains even after the commission’s findings, with City’s hierarchy showing no sign of accepting the outcome without a fight through the appeals process. That dynamic sets up a protracted legal battle that could stretch well into the 2026-27 season and beyond, echoing City’s partial win in the 2025 arbitration ruling over Associated Party Transaction rules even as the core financial-conduct case has now gone against the club.

Precedent: How Everton and Nottingham Forest Were Punished

While City’s case is far larger in scale and complexity than any previous Premier League financial enforcement action, two recent cases offer a guide to how the league’s disciplinary process can play out. Everton were given an initial 10-point deduction in November 2023 for breaching the league’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules over a £19.5 million overspend for the period ending 2021-22, a penalty an independent Appeal Board reduced to six points in February 2024. Everton were then hit with a further two-point deduction in March 2024 over a separate, admitted breach of £16.6 million for the following season; the club withdrew its appeal against that second penalty, and it remained in place.

Nottingham Forest were deducted four points in March 2024 after an independent commission found the club had exceeded its permitted losses threshold of £61 million by £34.5 million for the 2022-23 season. Forest’s appeal against that sanction was rejected by an independent Appeal Board in May 2024, and the BBC and Sky Sports both reported the four-point penalty was upheld in full.

Those cases, while far smaller in scale than the more than £900 million in artificially inflated revenue alleged in City’s case, established that the Premier League’s independent commissions are willing to impose immediate points deductions even on clubs facing relegation, and that appeals can meaningfully reduce — but not eliminate — the resulting sanction. Given the scale of the findings against City relative to Everton and Forest, football finance analysts cited across the sources reviewed for this article have suggested City’s eventual sanction, once determined, is likely to be more severe than either precedent, though no final penalty had been set as of September 30.

Timeline of the Case

What Happens Next

The immediate next step is City’s appeal, which the club must lodge by Friday, October 2, 2026. A separate commission hearing will then need to determine sanctions, a process that has no confirmed timeline based on current reporting. Until that hearing concludes, Manchester City continues to compete in the Premier League and UEFA competitions without any sporting sanction applied, and the club’s ownership has given no public indication that a sale is under consideration.

Burnham’s comments, while stopping short of addressing the legal merits of the case, signal how closely Manchester’s political leadership is watching a dispute that extends well beyond football governance and into questions about the city’s economic future. For now, City’s hierarchy — from Soriano to Guardiola — has responded with unified public defiance, while the Premier League’s disciplinary process, and City’s promised appeal, are set to dominate the club’s off-field agenda deep into the 2026-27 season.

Sources

• Andy Burnham ‘really concerned’ if Man City owners sell up … — bbc.com
• Andy Burnham ‘really concerned’ if Man City owners sell up after rule breaches — bbc.co.uk
• Prime Minister Andy Burnham ‘concerned’ Man City’s owners could sell the club — heraldscotland.com
• PM would be ‘concerned’ to lose Man City billionaire owners after guilty verdict — thesun.co.uk
• Andy Burnham admits concern Man City owners will be forced to SELL after being found guilty of overseeing £900m ‘sham’: Prime Minister praises their investment into the city — dailymail.com

Photo: Prime Minister’s Office, OGL 3, via Wikimedia Commons