A representative of Manchester City was invited on a government-backed trade delegation to India this week, despite the club having been found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League rules. The trip to Delhi and Mumbai was organised by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and Greater Manchester mayor Bev Craig travelled with a City representative alongside other northern mayors to promote British trade and tourism.
Craig defended the decision to include the club, telling the Guardian that City had played a vital role in helping build infrastructure in her city. She said that if a football club has broken the rules it should be punished through an independent process, but argued both things could be true at once: asked whether residents of east Manchester had benefited from a new library, a new leisure centre, a new sixth-form college, infrastructure investment and the job opportunities created by the club’s status as a good employment charter signee and an early adopter of the real living wage, she said they would have felt that benefit. City says it is innocent of the charges and has appealed against them, and declined to comment.
The delegation comes as the prime minister, Andy Burnham, faced pressure over his relationship with City’s owners during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester. He was forced to clarify on Wednesday that he had two additional dinners with the club chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, at the Etihad Stadium, having previously declared those only as matchday hospitality. Speaking at PMQs, Burnham said no one from the club had raised the Premier League charges with him.
Craig’s defence of the club came as her mayoral authority published details of Burnham’s contacts with City officials from his time as mayor. The release showed he had attended a formal meeting with al-Mubarak, had chatted to him in the stands at a player’s testimonial game, and was accompanied by staff from the club on official overseas visits. The Sun later revealed that Burnham had twice attended a pre-match dinner with the chair, which had been declared in now-deleted council paperwork; No 10 said it was routine for records to be deleted when a new mayor was in place.
Burnham’s initial response to the findings against City had drawn criticism after he said he would be “really concerned” if its Abu Dhabi owners sold the club, calling them a “huge partner in the building of modern Manchester”. As the prime minister came under fire for his comments, Downing Street clarified that he believed where wrongdoing had been established, those responsible should face the consequences. His defence of the club and its owners has focused attention both on his links to City and on how reliant he was on investment from Abu Dhabi to power Manchester’s strong growth rates while he was mayor.
City attended the trade delegation alongside several other northern sports and leisure organisations, including Lancashire cricket club and Visit Lake District, and while in India the club took part in an event in Delhi promoting British tourism. The Great North, a coalition of mayors from the north of England which organised the India event, said its aim was to “shine a spotlight on the great tourism products across the north of England”. The Greater Manchester mayoral authority said on Tuesday that representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would “routinely join business delegations” on international visits during Burnham’s time as mayor.
Other senior politicians on the trip included Reynolds, Scotland secretary Douglas Alexander and environment secretary Angela Eagle. Reynolds took part in a Premier League event on Tuesday, where he met schoolchildren being taught by British-trained coaches, and denied afterwards that the charges against City had tainted the league’s reputation, describing the Premier League as one of the UK’s most successful cultural exports and one of its most important, incredibly powerful brands. Asked whether it was appropriate for City to have been invited given the charges, he said it was “a Greater Manchester issue” and that the club was a major participant in the regional economy, adding that the allegations and the appeal were “a football matter”.