Manchester City have reported club record revenues of £613m and profits of £41.73m for the 2021-22 season.
It is the second highest revenue in English club history after Manchester United’s £627m in 2019.
Last season City won their sixth Premier League since the 2008 takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group.
City’s revenue was up £43.2m on the previous year, when the majority of games were played behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In 2008, we gave ourselves the target of exceeding the benchmarks that had been set by others within football; and in doing so, to also exceed the new standards we believed leading clubs would achieve in the time it would take us to catch-up,” said club chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak.
“Our aim was clear – to one day be the club that set the benchmark for others. The statistics and results show that in many ways we are beginning to achieve our long-term ambition.”
The financial results for the period covering 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 also show profit on player sales of £67.6m, which the club says takes revenue from transfers to £250m over the last five years.
The club says it has made a profit of approximately £35m on transfers agreed after the reporting date, which includes the purchase of Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips, Manuel Akanji, Stefano Ortega and Sergio Gomez and the sale of 17 players including Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Raheem Sterling.
Elsewhere, the return of fans to the Etihad Stadium after Covid restrictions were loosened brought £54.5m in matchday revenues, while commercial revenue rose from £271.7m to £309.5m on the previous year.
City’s success has not come without controversy.
In 2020, they were successful in their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after initially being found guilty of serious financial fair play breaches by Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body.
The Premier League’s own long-running investigation into the club’s financial fair play submissions is noted within the club’s financial report.
“The club acknowledge an ongoing Premier League investigation linked to the speculation resulting from the illegal hacking and out of context publication of club emails,” it said.
source: BBC
