the 2007 8 Premier League season could
not finish fast enough for Manchester
City the final match understand Goran
Eriksson was a nine goal thriller at
Middlesbrough were unfortunately City
conceited eight the club's reputation at
the time was that of Keystone Cops of
English football a bunch of Mavericks in
blue where the wheels were always on the
brink of falling off in those days their
hated local rivals are Old Trafford
looked upon City with mocking contempt
rather than as an enemy saving their
true loathing for Liverpool and Leeds
United behind the scenes things were
even worse whilst City fans were excited
at the start of the 2007 2008 season at
the prospect of new tie owner Texan
Shinawatra's promises of big spending
and success an investment in the likes
of Rolando Bianchi Felipe Caicedo and
Alana didn't prove to be successful and
the money from the new owner came from
unreliable sources city borrowed 46
million pounds in one year if Shinawatra
zone ership whilst borrowing money has
some benefits these loans came at a
price
as city's interest costs more than
doubled to ten point seven million
pounds the acquisition of the club by
Sheikh Manso in September 2008 safe City
in more ways than one and by this stage
Shinawatra had more pressing issues to
deal with in the form of corruption
charges from his homeland
Manso transformed city with an initial
scattergun spending policy on marquee
signings such as Robinho and an
audacious attempt to sign Kaka at this
time transfer fees and wages were an
irrelevance to the owners this impacted
on city's financial performance which
moved from a profit of 17 million pounds
in 2006 to a loss of 190 million pounds
in 2011 these losses were sustainable
because Sheikh Mansour was willing to
underwrite the losses through a
combination of interest-free loans and
shares had financial Fair Play rules
been in existence at the time than the
investment would not have been possible
this allowed the Abu Dhabi owners to
pump nearly 1.2 billion pounds worth of
cash into the club the owners huge
investment startled the existing elite
of European football who now saw City as
a potential threat to their cartel at
the top table of UEFA competitions these
established clubs put pressure on
Platini the UEFA president to introduce
some method of reduce
the rise of new money clubs such as
Chelsea city and PSG after much internal
haggling and huge amounts of money being
spent on accounting and legal fees by
UEFA Financial Fair Play rules relating
to non-payment of transfer fees were
introduced in 2011-12 and then extended
in the 13-14 season in the form of a
break-even model these rules are now so
complex that the latest version takes up
to 116 pages of legal and accounting
pontification
UEFA claim that FFP can be summarized in
one sentence financial fair play is
about improving the overall financial
health of European club football and we
were described that one sentence in one
word and that word is nonsense
businesses go bankrupt due to a lack of
cash not profit which is an arbitrary
accounting concept open to sleight of
hand estimates and manipulation the
initial rules restricted clubs losses
245 million euros over three years
ending in that period and then 30
million euros from 2015-16 a break-even
model calculates losses as income less
expenses clubs have three main sources
of income matchday broadcasting and
commercial it's difficult but not
impossible to manipulate matchday income
which is the number of tickets sold
multiplied by the ticket price and the
same is true for broadcast income which
is negotiated and distributed centrally
by individual leagues and uf4 itself
commercial income is different as it
represents deals signed by clubs and
their business partners the prices for
these deals are open to negotiation in
the years prior to the Abu Dhabi
takeover city's commercial income was
far less than their rivals from Old
Trafford whose ability to negotiate
deals in the back of their popularity
and success was ruthlessly exploited by
unites American owners this is where
eyebrows had been raised in relation to
Manchester City Etihad Airways the
national airline of Abu Dhabi the place
Thomas Cook as shirt sponsor in 2009
this had an immediate impact on city's
commercial revenues which increased by
126 percent in 2011 the Etihad deal was
expanded to include naming rights for
what had previously been known as the
city of Manchester Stadium which became
the Etihad Stadium
along with surrounding training
facilities called the Etihad campus the
agreement was for 10 years at an
estimated value of 400 million
pounds which included shirt sponsorship
as well as the name lies at the time the
largest fee for naming rights was just
2.8 million pounds per year by Arsenal
for the Emirates and other clubs had
tried and failed to secure high-value
sums from sponsors the accusation
leveled at City is that the Etihad deal
has been used to reduce the club's
losses and help it in satisfying
financial Fair Play rules because of the
Etihad Deal city's commercial income
initially matched that of United but has
subsequently fallen behind as their
rivals have managed to partner
themselves with everyone from Japanese
track to partner Yanmar to mattress
partner milli city's partnership with
Etihad does however mean that they have
the second highest amount of commercial
income in the Premier League and the 5th
largest of any football team globally
such was the extent of the Etihad deal
that there were accusations of financial
doping from the likes of arson Venga
UEFA had tried to minimize the impact of
deal signed by clubs with organizations
connected to the owners through the
related party transaction rules a
related party is one that is controlled
by the club owner or a close relative
in addition UEFA have set up a club
financial control body to ensure that
clubs do not overstate the value of
commercial deals city tried to set up
their deal with Etihad in such a way
that it complied with financial fair
play rules but such were their losses
they were put on the FFP naughty step in
2014 with the following penalties a
forty nine million pound fine part of
which was conditional on improving the
club's business model City Julie
received a rebate of two thirds of this
sum an agreement not to increase the
wage bill excluding bonuses for two
seasons a squad reduction for UEFA
competitions from 25 to 21 players and a
reduction in the amount spent on player
signings limited to a net 49 million
pound spend City managed to comply with
the sanctions and kept their wage bill
which had been 36 million before
Shinawatra in 2007 and zoomed to 233
million by 2014 in check until Pep
Guardiola arrived PSG were given a
similar fine in what was seen as a
victory for the existing elite of
European clubs clubs can however dispute
any rulings for the CF CP and this is
likely to trigger a long and expensive
legal action where the winners will be
the accountants and the lawyers in 2015
under pressure from you guessed it a
series of lawsuits from unhappy club
UEFA relaxed the ffp rules this has
allowed the likes of city and PSG to
spend money more freely the city and
Etihad partnership was born to an extent
out of necessity on the part of the club
to satisfy you a firs financial Fairplay
rules if the value of the deal initially
was excessive given the global position
and reputation of city in 2011 then
today with the club having won the
Premier League three times the four
hundred million pound deal which has
been renegotiated since its original
signing is probably about right for Pep
Guardiola's team in the current market