Downing Street says no suggestion Manchester City is ‘above rules’

Clarification comes after Burnham said he would be ‘really concerned to lose’ Manchester City’s owners if they decided to sell the club

Downing Street said Thursday there could be “no suggestion that anyone is above the rules” after Prime Minister Andy Burnham faced criticism over his comments about Manchester City and the club’s ongoing financial case. A No 10 spokesperson told BBC that Burnham had made clear that “the initial judgement is serious” and stressed that the Premier League process must be allowed to continue independently. “It is essential that it is allowed to run its course and the outcome respected,” the spokesperson said. “Wherever wrongdoing is established, those responsible should face the appropriate consequences.” The clarification came after Burnham said he would be “really concerned to lose” Manchester City’s owners if they decided to sell the club. “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 said in an interview with the BBC. Burnham also said he was “not getting directly involved in the process,” adding that it would be wrong to “jump to a conclusion” because the situation remained “contested by Manchester City.” The comments prompted criticism from Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians, who questioned whether political pressure could be brought to bear on the independent process. Manchester City deny any wrongdoing and have until Friday to submit an appeal against the independent commission’s findings. The commission found the club guilty of most of the 115 charges it faced. Among its findings were that City arranged “sham contracts” with commercial partners as part of a scheme to disguise secret funding of more than £830 million (nearly $1million). The Premier League said Manchester City “systematically broke” its rules for nearly a decade. Burnham has also said he was confident that his interactions with City’s owners during his time as Greater Manchester mayor would stand up to scrutiny.