Manchester City made a £20.5m profit on record income in 2015-16, the second consecutive financial year in which the club, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al- Nahyan, has made a profit.
City announced they earned £391.8m from TV-rights income, sponsorship, ticket sales and all commercial activities last season, when Manuel Pellegrini’s team finished fourth in the Premier League and reached the Champions League semi-finals for the first time.
The total wages paid to players and staff were approximately £196m, 50% of income, which is considered by accountants to be a financially healthy ratio for a football club.
City’s total income was £40m higher than the £352m made in 2014-15, itself a record year for the club, and the second-highest turnover in the Premier League after Manchester United. Having expanded the club’s stadium, sponsored by the Abu Dhabi state airline, Etihad, City’s average Premier League attendance increased by more than 8,000 to 54,041.
Total income from matches last season increased 21% to £52.5m, TV income was up 19% to £161.4m, and the club stated their commercial earnings, mostly sponsorship, were slightly up, 3% to £177.9m. The relatively small increase in that income is understood to be attributed to major commercial deals now being spread across the other football clubs Sheikh Mansour owns under the City group: New York City and Melbourne City. All the announced figures, for earnings, profit and for staff costs, relate specifically to Manchester City, a spokesman said.
United, who have already announced their financial figures for 2015-16, made income of £515m, which was £123m more than City last season, and a profit of £48.8m, despite United being knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage and finishing a place behind City in the Premier League.
City’s announcement of a second consecutive profit comes just five years since they recorded the biggest ever loss by any club in English football history, £197m in 2010-11. That was sustained as Mansour was injecting multimillions of pounds to buy players and pay wages on a scale the club’s income could not support in order to achieve success which would then increase the club’s own commercial earnings. Last season, City’s figures disclosed that Mansour’s investment since 2008 when he bought the club, which was then in financial difficulties, had reached £1.23bn. The up-to-date investment figure, and whether Mansour put more money into the club in 2015-16, has not yet been published.
City’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, a senior business and political figure in Abu Dhabi, said that it had been their intention when they bought the club in 2008 to increase turnover and record a profit. That was achieved partly by spending prodigiously on a team which would quickly be successful, while also investing in the new academy, ground expansion and other facilities which would enable the club’s income eventually to support a high, Champions League-level wage bill for an all-star squad.
“The transformation of Manchester City under the ownership of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan has never been anything other than a long-term project,” Mubarak said. “We have set ambitious goals, and achieved many of them faster than expected in the last eight years, but we have never underestimated the scale of the undertaking.”
Mubarak said he considered that the City “project” in 2015-16 had reached “sporting and commercial maturity” which saw the club able to be successful, now under the management of Pep Guardiola, and be sustainable financially.
