City post record yearly loss

Manchester City have announced a loss of 197 million pounds in the past financial year – the largest deficit ever posted by an English club.

The club’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, took his investment in the club to beyond 800 million pounds since his takeover three years ago, by funding a yearly wage bill of 174 million pounds, which represents 21 million pounds more than City’s total turnover.

The figure far eclipses the previous record of 145 million pounds recorded by Chelsea in 2005, during their second year under the ownership of Roman Abramovich.

The deficit includes the 156 million pounds spent on purchasing new players over the past year, including the likes of David Silva (26 million pounds), Edin Dzeko (27 million pounds) and Mario Balotelli (24 million pounds).

The huge loss raises concerns over whether the Citizens will be able to meet UEFA’s criteria for the new financial fair play rules, which will be applied to European clubs from the 2014-15 season.

However, Graham Wallace, the club’s chief operating officer, insists that City’s financial situation will only improve from here.

“Our losses, which we predicted as part of our accelerated investment strategy, will not be repeated on this scale in the future,” he declared.

“These financial results represent the bottoming-out of financial losses at Manchester City before the club is able to move towards a more sustainable position in all aspects of its operations in the years ahead.”

“As we undertake the club’s commercial transformation, we are cognisant of the incoming UEFA financial fair play regulations and consequently we continue to maintain positive and ongoing dialogue with all appropriate football authorities.”

City’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, expressed his hope that the club would be able to grow from this point and reduce its need to rely on heavy cash injections from Sheikh Mansour.

“Now that we are witnessing progress, both on and off the pitch, it is more important than ever to work towards achieving our ambition to establish Manchester City as a more successful, sustainable and internationally competitive football club, which remains rooted in the heart of the community it serves,” he said.

The current Premier League leaders will hope that regular Champions League football, increased television revenue and commercial earnings to match growing successes on the pitch, and the record-breaking stadium sponsorship deal recently agreed with Etihad, will all contribute towards the goal of breaking even in time for the financial fair play rules to come into effect.