By Ediale Kingsley
Manchester City have announced record revenues of £473.4million for the past financial year.
The Premier League club have also recorded a profit for the third straight year while showing financial improvement for a ninth year in succession.
The healthy figures, published in the club’s annual report for 2016-17, come with the club also in fine shape on the field.
Pep Guardiola’s side top the Premier League after 11 games and are already through to the knockout stages of the Champions League. The club’s women’s team completed a clean sweep of all three domestic trophies last year.
It is the first time the club have recorded revenues in excess of £400million and the figure represents an increase of 21 per cent on the previous year. Profit was just £1.088million but the figures were recorded over an unusual 13-month period to the end of June.
This was due to a change in the club’s accounting procedure to bring them into line with the rest of the City Football Group, their holding company, in working to a July 1-June 30 financial year. The excess could have been closer to £10million had it not taken into account June, which is a month of relatively little income.
City, who were taken over by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi in 2008, remain debt-free.
In the report, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak points out revenue growth is moving “towards the £500million mark” and points out that “on-field success and financial sustainability must exist hand-in-hand”.
He added: “What hopefully comes across is that the football organisation and off-field business have the right symmetry and balance to allow us to continue to further strengthen and grow.”
The report does not hide the club’s disappointment at a failure to win a men’s trophy in 2016-17, the first of Guardiola’s reign, but optimism for the future is high. City not only intend to win silverware in the coming years, but to do so in style.
Chief executive Ferran Soriano said: “We are committed to playing beautiful football and to win. Both elements are compatible and the second is a consequence of the first.”
Al Mubarak also pays tribute to the “outstanding achievement” of the treble-winning women’s side that has established them as a “major force in the game”.
The winning of nine trophies by academy sides is also celebrated with Al Mubarak saying “our commitment to nurture our own talent remains a central pillar for the club’s long-term sustainability”.
The 2017-18 campaign will bring to an end the first decade of Sheikh Mansour’s ownership.
Al Mubarak said: “In the context of more than 120 years of club history, this is a relatively short period of time, but it has been one of significant growth, with much learned and much gained on a journey that still has a long way to go.”