CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
The cost of City’s Champions League win
Since the arrival of Sheikh Sheikh Mansour in 2008, Manchester City have invested heavily in all areas of the football club from infrastructure through to big money signings.
The Abu Dhabi United Group project, headed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed have secured their ‘holy grail’ after Manchester City secured their first ever Champions League triumph on Saturday night with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Istanbul. With the triumph, City became one of a handful of European clubs to complete the treble with the UCL win added to their FA Cup and Premier League titles.
After 15 years under UAE control and after spending a total of 2,303 million euro in transfers, the 2022-23 is the only season that the City accounts have not ended in the red.
2008 takeover
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed attended his second Man City game in Istanbul last Saturday since taking over as owner in September 2008 and after purchasing the club from Thai businessman Thaksin Shinawatra, the Abu Dhabi United Group wasted no time in getting the cheque book out spending 115 million euro in a matter of weeks with Brazilian Robinho the first of what would be many big marquee signings.
With the arrival of high profile players such as Pablo Zabaleta, David Silva, Yaya Touré and Vincent Kompany, among others, City started to make inroads and in May 2011, the Sky Blues won the FA Cup, their first title since 1976. A year later, and after buying Sergio Agüero from Atlético Madrid, City secured their first league title in 44 years with a dramatic last minute goal from the Argentine securing a place in the history books for Agüero.
The Eastlands Stadium was renamed the Etihad Stadium as the club spent heavily in developing the area around the stadium creating some of the best facilities in the world for the City Academy.
Meanwhile, on the pitch City secured a Premier League and League Cup double under the command of Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini. In the 2016-17 season, Pep Guardiola arrived with expectation heavy on the shoulders of the Catalan coach who saw his side fail to lift any silverware in his first season in Manchester.
Spending spree
A spending spree ensued as Sheikh Mansour solved the issue by digging deep to spend 317 million euro in the most expensive squad rebuilding exercise in the club’s history. Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva and Ederson were drafted in along with defender Aymeric Laporte who arrived in January 2018.
Pep Guardiola has been a key factor in City’s success as in the summer of 2021, the then Premier League champions made Jack Grealish the most expensive English player of all time as Aston Villa received almost 117 million euro for his signature.
In total, the Abu Dhabi United Group has invested a total of 2,303 million euro in transfers alone shipping players from the club’s books for 852 million (euro) with their transfer activity alone since 2008 delivering a net loss of 1,452 million euros.
Premier League charges
In February 2023, Manchester City were charged by the English Premier League with breaking financial fair play rules around 100 times over a nine-year period, which starts in 2009 and goes on until 2018.
City have appealed these charges and a long, drawn-out legal battle is expected with the Mancunian denying any wrongdoing.