![Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman of the Manchester City football team, chats with then-Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham during the Vincent Kompany testimonial match on September 11, 2019 [Alex Livesey/Getty Images]](https://cityreports.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/getty_6acd1c7e68-1791827070-768x512.jpg "UK Prime Minister reveals truth about his relationship with Man City chairman after media attacks")
![Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman of the Manchester City football team, chats with then-Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham during the Vincent Kompany testimonial match on September 11, 2019 [Alex Livesey/Getty Images]](https://cityreports.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/getty_6acd1c7e68-1791827070.jpg)
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been drawn deeper into questions over his relationship with Manchester City’s hierarchy, after the Greater Manchester Combined Authority confirmed details of his past meetings with club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
According to a GMCA statement reported by Al Jazeera, Burnham met Al Mubarak in October 2021 at the UK government’s Global Investment Summit, while he was serving as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
The authority said the gathering was a formal meeting arranged through the Department for International Trade, and insisted it had been properly recorded.
The two men had also crossed paths two years earlier, in September 2019, when Burnham attended Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match at the Etihad Stadium as a guest of the club.
The GMCA said that encounter with the chairman came informally, in the stands, and that such contact was not unusual for a mayor whose brief included engaging with the region’s major sporting institutions.
“In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade,” a Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) spokesman said.
“In his capacity as mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.”
Representatives of Manchester United, Lancashire Cricket Club and City’s own staff had, at various points, joined the mayor on overseas business delegations, the authority added, including trips to China, Japan, Austin and Dublin.
Burnham, who held the Greater Manchester mayoralty from 2017 until June this year, has faced pointed criticism over his past remarks about City’s ownership.
The scrutiny intensified after the club was found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules, prompting Burnham to say he would be “really concerned” if the Abu Dhabi United Group, led by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, were to sell the club as a result.
He had earlier told the BBC that City’s owners had been a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester, a comment that fed accusations he was too close to the club’s leadership.
Downing Street was later forced to clarify that no individual or institution was above the rules governing football finance.
Opposition demands more transparency
The response has not satisfied Burnham’s critics. Conservative sport spokesman Louie French said the GMCA statement offered precious little information about what was actually discussed in the meetings, or whether anything had been agreed between the two men.
French argued that the Prime Minister could not simply point to the regional authority’s account and move on, insisting Burnham himself needed to address the matter directly rather than letting officials speak on his behalf.
City have strongly disputed the Premier League’s findings and are not believed to be in any discussions about a change of ownership, but the political row has added an unwelcome distraction for a club already navigating one of the most significant periods of change in its modern history.
That transformation is most visible on the pitch and on the touchline. Pep Guardiola departed the Etihad at the end of the 2025-26 season after a decade in charge, during which City won six Premier League titles and a historic Treble.
His successor, Enzo Maresca, returned to the club in the summer having previously worked as a City assistant coach and managed both Leicester City and Chelsea. Maresca signed a three-year contract and described the move as a return to a club he knows well, telling the press it represented a brilliant opportunity to manage a team of this calibre.
Meanwhile, for City’s hierarchy, led by Al Mubarak, the Burnham controversy arrives at an awkward moment, with attention already split between a managerial transition and the fallout from the financial rules verdict.
Khaldoon has previously made clear he does not shy away from defending the club publicly, having used past interviews to push back robustly against criticism from rival executives and European officials.
