Manchester City eased to the Premier League title at the end of the 202/21 season and it might be thanks to their €1.063billion-squad.
New evidence reported in the Daily Mail shows Manchester City may have inflated income to get round Premier League financial rules amid investigations into the club's alleged breaches of FFP.
City have been reliant on organisations based in owner Sheikh Mansour's home country of the UAE to provide sponsorship deals that have allowed them to outspend most of their rivals, including Liverpool and Everton, on transfer fees and wages in the past decade.
At the start of last season the Manchester outfit had the most expensive squad in world football that cost them €1.063billion (£974million) in transfer fees.
The pandemic dealt a heavy financial blow for all Premier League clubs, except, it seems, for Manchester City.
The club had a whopping £351.4m on their wage books during the 2019/20 campaign - the highest one-season total in the history of English football.
Liverpool offered Manchester City no challenge last season as Pep Guardiola's won their fifth Premier League win in nine years.
However, the Reds stormed to their first Premier League title in 30 years during the 2019/20 campaign despite City's astronomical wage bill.
According to the Mail on Sunday's analysis, in the 10 years to the end of 2020, City earned £1.7bn in commercial income while Liverpool, along with Chelsea and Arsenal averaged £1.1bn.
This means that City somehow generated £600million more than their closest rivals.
Most of the City's commercial earnings come from within the UAE. In 2012/13, 83 per cent of Man City's £143m commercial revenue came from UAE-based companies, and that figure was 68 per cent in 2016 and 56 per cent in 2020.
However, this could spell trouble for Sheikh Mansour if the investigation proves that that chunks of money apparently being paid as sponsorship by 'arms length' third parties are not paid by the bodies claimed but in fact are ultimately funded by the City owner or parties related to him.
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