00:00I've discussed football with Andy over many, many years and as a passionate Evertonian,
00:04he believes strongly that the rules of the game have to be upheld and that that cannot be called
00:10into question. Obviously, as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, he will have met with a number of
00:16sporting outlets and owners and he's been absolutely upfront and transparent about those dealings,
00:22but we have been clear consistently as a government and the Prime Minister in particular,
00:27that football is too important to this country to have rules that aren't applied without fear or favour
00:34and owners, although we welcome investment into our clubs, in fact for many of those clubs,
00:41those owners are the reason that they continue to exist. They are custodians of the game and
00:46ultimately football belongs to its fans.
