You’d be forgiven for thinking that the biggest sports story of yesterday was United lifting their first trophy since 2017, but you’re wrong: it was the camera spotting ‘that World Cup guy’.
You know the one.
As Manchester United were celebrating their first piece of silverware in six years, the cameras inside Wembley scanned across the thousands of travelling Reds singing in victory and while there were plenty of happy fans worth snapping, one, in particular, stood out from the rest.
Remember that very recognisable and somehow quintessentially British-looking England fan at the World Cup? Well, he also happened to be at the Carabao Cup final on Sunday and looked just as buzzing to be there as ever.
If (by some strange circumstance) you don’t happen to know who this man is, he is the one and only Andy Milne: by our estimates, one of the most dedicated, well-travelled and now well-known football fans you’ll ever come across.
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During Qatar 2022, Andy went viral after his face was plastered all over social media and quickly became one of the most heartwarming memes of the year.
A retired teacher from Cheshire, the 59-year-old has been going to England games since he was 19, watching them at eight different World Cups, and whenever they go out he simply stays at the tournament and joins in with whichever group of fans he thinks is having the most fun. What a vibe.
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Moreover, it turns out he is a United fan himself — hence why he popped up at the League Cup final. In fact, from what we can gather, it seems like there aren’t many games he misses, as social media sleuths when to great lengths to trace his match-going career throughout history. It’s truly wonderful:
We’re not joking when we say he really is one of the famous football fans about today. While the World Cup was still going on, he even went on to set up his own social media account where simply identified himself as ‘that World Cup guy’.
Being a big Red and having already been spotted at Wembley the last time United were there, it’s no surprise he managed to bag himself a ticket.
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Always a pleasure to see you, Andy. If things keep going the way they are for ten Hag, we’ll keep an eye out for you come the FA Cup final.
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “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.
“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.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
27th February 2023 
