We hear today that Manchester City have made a financial loss of £121 million in the 12 months to May 31st 2010. This is the second largest financial loss in Premier League history, the largest being £141 million at the end of Roman Abramovich's first full year after his takeover of Chelsea in 2004-05. In Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's first full year of ownership the club's income of £125 million was exceeded by a wage bill £8 million higher than that figure. Then there was the small matter of assembling an incredibly expensive squad of players.
It begs the question of where the Premier League is heading and whether we now need to turn to the business pages rather than the sports pages for our football news. I can't help but hanker for the 'old days' when virtually any club could aspire to win the First Division. It seems so sad that money now plays such a massive part in our national game and creates an increasingly large gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. Or maybe I am just being bitter because this month is likely to reveal in which of these two groups my club, Liverpool, will belong.
In any event, at least UEFA has introduced a financial fair-play edict requiring clubs to break even as of next year. This means that clubs are permitted to lose only £39 million up to the year 2014. If they lose more than that they may face sanctions, including exclusion from major European competitions. It's going to be very interesting to see how the clubs with the sugar daddies cope with these regulations.
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