Manchester City have taken the next step on the growth they’ve shown in recent years by announcing the first profit of the Sheikh Mansour era in a report on their official website. This news comes as the latest in a string of financial improvements from The Blues, following their record loss of almost £200 million in the 2010-11 financial year.
Since that tremendous loss, which saw City come under heavy criticism for the way they were allegedly trying to buy into the elite of football, each year has seen the loss cut by around half, with losses of £98m, £52m and £23m in the following three financial years. Now, this year has seen the first profit, of £10.7 million, and it displays just how far Manchester City have come as a club under the City Football Group.
The Blues have broken down what the £10.8m profit is comprised of, and it shows an increase in both commercial and broadcast revenue, to £173m and £135.4m respectively. Added onto this is matchday revenue, which has fallen to £43.3 million, which all adds up to make a record revenue of over £351.8 million, with the final £0.1m presumably being revenue not mentioned by the club’s report of the financial year.
More news, which will likely be music to the ears of Blues who had to watch their club be damaged by Financial Fair Play violations and the subsequent punishments in terms of fines and squad restrictions, is that the club now has no debt or financial restrictions placed on them going into the new financial year, and they will be hoping to further increase on the profit of a little over £10 million they’ve made in the past 12 months.
