Skip to main content

City makes profits from player trading

Despite its success on the pitch — winning both the English Premier League title and Europe’s Champions League — Manchester City consistently loses money at the operating level. Last season, its loss widened by two-thirds to £35.6mn. Over a decade those losses have summed to £334mn, according to data from football analyst Kieran Maguire.

The club’s wage bill is one of the highest in the Premier League at £354mn. Its wage to revenue ratio of 59 per cent, though relatively low, has not shifted since 2019.

But City, like some other top Premier League clubs, makes tidy profits from trading in players. In the decade through last season, City earned nearly half a billion pounds in this way. This is good news for the owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a businessman and politician from the United Arab Emirates.

Crosstown rival Manchester United, the subject of endless takeover speculation, made £150mn from trading in players. These transactions have kept City’s pre-tax profits in the black every year bar one since 2014. The club, it must be added, faces 115 charges from the Premier League over financial fair play rules, raising questions on how sustainable returns are.

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire notes: 'Manchester City's revenue £8.4m, in 2022/23 £713m, an increase of 8,410% during a period when inflation has been 106%. Wages have increased from £1,800 a week to £196,500 a week, an increase of 10,563%.'

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do
Post a Comment
Read more