City expect to avoid FFP sanctions after posting record revenues
Manchester City expect to avoid UEFA Financial Fair Play sanctions this season after reporting decreased losses and record turnover figures.
City's annual report for the 2013-14 season sees the club break the $470 million threshold for revenues, with $543 million in income having been generated, and their losses have more than halved to $36 million. Those losses include the $25 million penalty they had to pay European football's governing body for a disputed breach of FFP regulations.
It should also mean City will not be subject to the full $78 million conditional fine attributed to them in May, with the penalty limited to the $25 million already levied.
Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak issued a positive statement over the club's future, with the first-team's Premier League and Capital One Cup victories having been added to at academy age-group levels as well as a successful first season in the FA Women's Super League for Manchester City Women's FC.
"It is commercial growth of the kind we are seeing today that will underpin and support our operations in the future," Mubarak said in his chairman's message. "Commercial success has never been an afterthought for Manchester City. It has always been an integral part of the strategy implemented under Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's direction since 2008."
He added: "Now that we have moved beyond the period of heavy investment that was required to make the club competitive again, it is commercial growth of the kind we are seeing today that will underpin and support our operations in the future. Importantly, Manchester City is entering the next phase of its development with zero financial debt."
The club's chief executive officer Ferran Soriano said: "This year Manchester City has reached the levels of maturity, strength and stability that it has been working so hard towards over the past six years. The 2013-14 season marks not the end but rather the continuation of an incredible journey, with many goals and new developments ahead. In our last annual report I wrote of a transformation underway; now I believe the days of Manchester City playing catch up are over."
