Manchester City post $97 million loss
30/01/14, 11:19 AM
Price of success: High-flying Manchester City are heavily in the red.
City's Annual Report
Manchester City lost more than £51.6 million ($97 million) last year, exceeding the amount allowed under UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules.
The Abu Dhabi-owned club announced on Wednesday that it lost £149.5 million ($284 million) between 2011 and 2013, the first FFP monitoring period.
UEFA is allowing losses of only up to €45 million ($70 million) in that two-year period.
Clubs exceeding that amount risk being sanctioned, and could be banned from playing in Europe.
There isn't a single mention of FFP compliance in the annual report that was released on Wednesday.
To comply with FFP, City could point to its spending on infrastructure, the cost of long-term player contracts, and losses coming down.
After losing £97.9 million in 2011-12, City posed a loss of £51.6 million in 2012-13 and revealed that net spending since then in the summer transfer window was £84. 1 million.
The 2012-13 losses would have been more than the previous year had City not generated £47 million by selling "intellectual property", which could include its branding, to "third parties" or "related parties".
Salaries jumped by 15 per cent to £233 million in 2012-13.
But City disclosed that it was now operating with "zero financial debt", while announcing that turnover had risen to £271 million.
"Growing revenues and controlled expenses are bringing the club to break-even in the immediate future and profitability thereafter," chief executive Ferran Soriano said on Wednesday.
The first UEFA decisions on FFP compliance are expected during March and April.
European football's governing body will analyse whether deals by clubs with companies connected with the owner were at market value or were over-inflated to boost revenue.
Abu Dhabi-owned Etihad Airways is City's kit sponsor and has the stadium naming rights.
You're F'ckd come on UEFA deal wiv em!!
You ain't got no intellect or no property to sell hahaha