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City Football Group racks up losses

City Football Group (CFG), the holding company that oversees the multi-club ownership group spearheaded by Manchester City, recorded a £122.2million pre-tax loss in the 2023-24 season, taking CFG’s combined losses since its 2013 founding to £972.8m. By contrast, across the same period, Manchester City recorded a pre-tax profit of £103.4m.

CFG’s losses have now cleared £100m in each of the last three seasons, though a £30.3m income tax credit reduced last season’s net loss to below that marker. John MacBeath, a board member at CFG, stated at the end of 2013-14 season that the board “expect the group to be profitable within the next three years.”

CFG has yet to make an annual profit or come anywhere close to doing so. Last season’s result did at least represent a stabilisation of sorts, with the pre-tax loss reducing by £4.7m (four per cent).

CFG’s pre-tax loss for 2023-24 came despite new record income for the group of £933.1m. CFG’s revenue, unsurprisingly, is principally attributable to Manchester City, whose £715m income in 2023-24 accounted for 77 per cent (2022-23: 81 per cent) of the multi-club group’s turnover. City’s annual income isn’t far shy of the total combined amount generated by CFG’s other entities since the group was formed in January 2013 (£865.8m).

The gulf to the next highest-earning club is significant: Girona generated income of just £59.6m while finishing third in La Liga last season. Below them, New York City FC of MLS contributed £46.5m, Brazil’s Bahia £31.3m, Italy’s Palermo £18.5m and France’s Troyes £11.2m.

The remaining five majority-owned clubs under the CFG banner generated turnover of less than £10m each. Elsewhere, City SoFive, which runs recreational football centres for children, added £24.5m to the top line.

In terms of player trading, City’s success in this regard has been well-known for a while, but there are signs of fellow CFG clubs catching up (at least as a collective). £72.1m of last season’s player sale profits were attributable to clubs other than City, with the sales of Taty Castellanos and Gabriel Pereira by New York City FC and Santiago Bueno by Girona being the most notable contributors.

CFG now pays significant interest to fund its operations. In the last three years, cash interest payments totalled £127.3m while, from a profit and loss perspective, financing costs made up half of last season’s £122.2m loss.

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