EPL Debate: Manchester City's Etihad Stadium Deal Evading Financial Fair Play? (2024)

FAQs

How did Man City breach financial fair play? ›

Allegedly, they did not fully disclose the financial remunerations that were made to one of their managers over a four-year period. The suggestion is that there was a secret contract so one of the managers was getting paid much more than officially stated.

City were banned from European competitions for two years by UEFA for alleged breaches of the European governing body's own FFP regulations in February 2020. The sanction was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in July of the same year, however.

The stadium was designed by Arup and built by John Laing. The stadium cost about £110 million. £77 million of that was paid by Sport England and the rest was paid by the Manchester City Council. For the Commonwealth Games, the stadium had one lower level along three sides of the athletics track.

Value of Manchester City's jersey main sponsorship 2009-2022

In the 2021/22 season, Manchester City received 67.5 million GBP from its main jersey sponsor Etihad.

Man City are alleged to have breached rules relating to the provision of accurate financial information, “in particular with respect to its revenue [including sponsorship revenue], its related parties and its operating costs”, the league said.

Manchester City were denied a request for extra Premier League winners' medals due to not meeting the requirements set out by the league.

Guardiola: Manchester City's titles cannot be taken away from us. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said no one can take away the club's achievements even if the ongoing Premier League investigation into their financial affairs was to see the reigning English champions stripped of their titles.

Manchester City's European ban was overturned after accusations that the club's owners disguised at least £204m as sponsorship went unproven, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has revealed.

Manchester City have been criticised by a skin cancer charity after fans were told they could not take sun cream to the Etihad Stadium.

The deal was negotiated by the AFL, the stadium management's chief executive Michael Green and Watson-Wheeler. It came about after the airline indicated that it did not want to renew its arrangement, which was due to expire in March.

Why are Man City sponsored by Etihad? ›

Etihad funded this sponsorship from its own liquidity. It is not uncommon for airlines to have sponsorships with sports teams and their venues.” Etihad did not refer in that response to the consultants' review or explain why the consultants had said “Executive Council covers Man City”.

A City transformed

Back in 2011, the agreement between Manchester City and Etihad was greeted with a good deal of scepticism. Worth a reported £400 million, Etihad's acquisition of the stadium naming rights and shirt sponsorship was immediately questioned by rivals who suggested it was higher than market value.

Salary & Benefits

Fixed pay of AED 26,000 per month. Flight duty allowance of AED 40 per flying hour. Housing allowance up to AED 160000 per year. Education allowance of AED 36000 for primary and AED 50400 for secondary up to 3 children.

The typical Etihad Airways Pilot salary is 36,000. Pilot salaries at Etihad Airways can range from 30,000 - 1,00,000.

Man City paid over £5.5million in rent for the Etihad Stadium in 2021-22, sources have told Football Insider. That is nearly double what they paid Manchester City Council for the first season following the renegotiation of the 250-year lease at the former Commonwealth Games arena in 2010-11.

The company that owns Manchester City is registered in the UK and files UK results to Companies House. Manchester City have no debt and pay no interest to any outside company. They do this because their owner is spending his own money and uses debt/equity swaps to make sure the club owes him nothing.

The crux of FFP regulations is the break-even requirement, where clubs are ordered to not spend more than the income that they generate, and that they must balance their books over the course of three years.

Sponsorships boost revenues and therefore the amount clubs have to spend under FFP, so the perception that Mansour himself was funding the Etihad deal led to the serious allegation that City had deceived Uefa's CFCB, which is responsible for ensuring compliance with FFP.

The English Premier League accused Manchester City of violating dozens of financial rules in a Monday statement, outlining various charges that could result in the expulsion of the two-time reigning Premier League winner from the world's top soccer division.

Did Man City collect their runners-up medals? ›

Community Shield runners-up Manchester City elected not to collect their losers medals after Liverpool secured the trophy on Saturday. The two sides went head-to-head at the King Power Stadium in what was the season's traditional curtain-raiser.

The Liverpool F.C.–Manchester City F.C. rivalry is an inter-city rivalry between English professional football clubs Liverpool and Manchester City. Liverpool play their home games at Anfield, while Manchester City play their home games at the City of Manchester Stadium.

While relegation or losing titles would seem more unlikely, Man City would face a host of other possible sanctions if they are found guilty. The independent commission would have the power to suspend City from Premier League games and deduct points.

If found guilty, they can appeal to another panel, all of which will takes months to happen. It suits City, for example, to have taken 15 points off them next season compared to this one. If it happens this campaign, it cost them their title, next year, they could still start minus 15 and qualify for Europe.

In February, the Premier League accused Man City of breaching more than 100 financial rules, which includes failing to provide accurate financial information, failing to comply with UEFA's financial fair play (FFP) regulations, and failing to follow Premier League rules on profit and sustainability.

The Citizens have been found guilty of "overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts" and also in the information given to UEFA between 2012 and 2016.

Even though Manchester City Football Club has made the Etihad Stadium famous around the globe, Manchester City Council still owns the freehold of the Etihad facility, which means that the club does not have ownership of the stadium.

The "Disgrace of Gijón" is the name given to a 1982 FIFA World Cup football match played between West Germany and Austria at the El Molinón stadium in Gijón, Spain, on 25 June 1982. The match was the sixth and last game of the first-round Group 2, with the fifth game occurring on the previous day.

Two men were arrested on suspicion of trying to take a pyrotechnic into the stadium and a male for a racially aggravated public order offence. A 53-year-old man was assaulted after the game, police said. The clubs said such incidents were wholly unacceptable.

Why is there one red seat at Marvel Stadium? ›

On the same day Hodge confirmed that the 2017-18 season will be the last of a career that began in the early 1990s, stadium management honoured his monster six by unveiling a red seat where the ball landed in the top tier.

Marvel Stadium's famous retractable roof ensures that events proceed in perfect conditions, no matter what the weather conditions outside. The roof, the only one of its kind in the Southern hemisphere used for any football code, can open or close in eight minutes.

In September 2018, the stadium was renamed Marvel Stadium after the stadium operators negotiated an eight-year deal with the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of Marvel Entertainment, to change the naming rights and install a Marvel retail store at the venue.

The biggest single sponsorship investment in Manchester City for the 2022/23 season comes from Puma, which is an agreement valued at $86.40m per year.

Sheikh Mansour (via investment vehicle ADUG) bought Manchester City from somebody with whom he already had a relationship, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The purchase was made only after some very serious investigations into the idea of buying a Premier League club had previously been conducted.

Etihad stormed into 2022 with a first-half profit of $296 million on operating revenues of $1.23 billion. That's its biggest recorded profit ever, and a testament to the incredible transformation that the airline has been through in the past four and a half years.

Naming rights deals help both the sports facilities and their corporate sponsors. The owner of the professional sports venue receives substantial revenues to pay for construction costs or high player salaries by selling a package deal. The benefits for the corporate sponsor include the amenity clause.

At the top end, fintech company SoFi (Nasdaq: SOFI) is paying roughly $31.2 million per year to put its name atop the Los Angeles Rams' new home in Los Angeles.

How much does a Etihad cabin crew make? ›

Etihad Airways Cabin Crew Monthly Pay

The estimated base pay is AED 10,000 per month. The "Most Likely Range" represents values that exist within the 25th and 75th percentile of all pay data available for this role. How accurate is this most likely Total Pay range (base + additional) of AED 5K-AED 11K/mo?

While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $200,000 and as low as $23,000, the majority of Private Pilot salaries currently range between $52,000 (25th percentile) to $100,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $200,000 annually across the United States.

However, some Southwest pilots earn as much as $549,000. Similarly, United Airlines pilots earn an average of $205,000. The average Delta Airlines pilot earns $192,000 with top-earners making $526,000. American Airlines pilots earn an average salary of $118,000, with some pilots earning in excess of $700,000.

At a Glance Airline Pilot Pay Overview

In the May 2021 report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the range of salaries for airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers from less than $100,110 a year, to the highest 10 percent earning more than $208,000.

How Much Does a Pilot Make? Pilots made a median salary of $134,630 in 2021. The best-paid 25% made $208,000 that year, while the lowest-paid 25% made $100,550.

England national football teams' home ground, Wembley Stadium. It cost £1.1 Billion (around $1.5 billion at the time and over $1.8 billion when adjusted for inflation).

Value of Manchester City's jersey main sponsorship 2009-2022

The statistic shows the revenue Manchester City generated from its jersey sponsorship deal from the 2009/10 season to the 2021/22 season. In the 2021/22 season, Manchester City received 67.5 million GBP from its main jersey sponsor Etihad.

City have been charged with more than 100 breaches of rules that required the club, according to the Premier League, to provide "accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club's financial position." City have also been accused of failing to cooperate with the investigation.

The UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP) are a set of regulations established to prevent professional football clubs spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success, and in doing so not getting into financial problems which might threaten their long-term survival.

When did Man City have a financial takeover? ›

It's been one of the most remarkable stories in modern football. On September 1, 2008, Manchester City were taken over by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), changing the face of the club—and the English game—forever.

There are wide ranging sanctions Man City could now face that range from fines, to points deductions, and even expulsion from the Premier League. An independent commision will now hear the charges and determine an outcome.

4 and/or Rule B. 13 is strict, i.e., no proof of intent, recklessness, or any other fault is required.

Swiss Ramble adding on the above: “And for the sake of completeness, here's the highest owner debt in England, led by Brighton £406m, Everton £381m, Leicester £266m and Arsenal £218m, largely driven by infrastructure investment. Much of the debt in the Championship is provided by owners (12 of top 20 clubs).”

Debt is something that plagues every football club. Only four clubs in Europe are free of it: Paris Saint Germain, Manchester City, Leicester City, and Chelsea.

This first table from Swiss Ramble shows the Premier League clubs (and Championship ones) with the highest 'Gross financial debt': Some truly shocking amounts, with a combined figure of over £3billion owed by six Premier League clubs – Spurs, Man U, Brighton, Leicester, Everton and Arsenal.

City were charged in February with more than 100 alleged breaches of the Premier League's financial rules. The majority of the alleged charges relate to the period covering 2009 to 2018.

The investigation will still take place with an independent financial commission, who will make a ruling on Manchester City's breach. The Premier League will still hand out discipline in accordance with the commission's findings.

Manchester City revealed this week it lost a whopping $172 million in 2019-20. Although coronavirus disruption to the season is the key reason for it, comments by manager Pep Guardiola saying the club may be priced out of a move for a new striker had added weight.

How much money have Man City spent since the takeover? ›

Having spent nearly £2billion in transfers alone since his takeover, Mansour has seen City rise to the top under his ownership with some smart recruitment choices - Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva and Sergio Aguero are just a few of many star-studded arrivals. But not all of them have worked out as they have hoped.