Manchester City’s $500 million wage bill is the largest in English football history
Manchester City, the Premier League’s dominant team for much of the past decade, announced on Wednesday that it had spent more on player salaries last season than any team in British football history. It paid more than $500 million while claiming the English and European championships.
Backed by the lavish spending of its owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nayhan, brother of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, City last season secured a third consecutive Premier League championship, the FA Cup and its first Champions League title. so-called treble that only one English team had managed to achieve before.
City’s success has been built on the tactical acumen of Spain’s coach, Pep Guardiola, and a string of world-class players, but also on a seemingly unlimited amount of money. City now trails only Barcelona when it comes to the salaries of its players, but unlike that of Spanish superteam City, the Spanish superteam’s spending has not led to a financial crisis. Instead, City also announced record revenues of £712.8 million, or almost $900 million – another British record – for the year to June 2023.
The club’s annual accounts also showed a profit of £80 million, double what was reported a year earlier. All the figures pointed to a transformation in City’s economic conditions, which for years had been marked by heavy losses due to a level of spending that few rivals could match.
However, the city’s commercial success and financial progress have been shrouded in controversy for years. A years-long investigation into the Premier League has this year yielded more than 100 charges of rule-breaking against the team – most of them linked to allegations of inflated sponsorship deals with companies in the United Arab Emirates and misdeclared salaries. City have disputed the Premier League’s allegations and its conclusions about the club’s finances.
An independent panel acting on behalf of the league has spent years hearing the case, which was opened in 2018 after a leak of internal club documents. In 2020, City successfully appealed a Champions League ban imposed following a separate investigation by European football’s governing body. City won on a technicality after lawyers successfully argued that the information at the heart of the case was out of date.
These legal problems have not distracted the team on the pitch, where it has become one of the most reliable winning machines in English football history. City have secured four of the last five Premier League titles and with 13 games played in the current season, they currently sit in their usual position at the top of the table.
City chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak, a top lieutenant of the Emirati royal family, said the team would not slow down anytime soon. The club would “double down on the proven philosophies and practices that have brought us this success,” he said in the club’s comments.
“We will continue to question all industry norms,” he added.