Manchester City have revealed the price of last season’s historic Treble after becoming the first club in British football history to spend more than £400 million ($498m) on annual wages.

The reigning Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup champions have reported record revenues on £712.8m — an increase of £99.8m ($124m) on the previous year — in the club’s Annual Report for the 2022-23 season. City’s profits increased to £80.4m from £41.7m the year prior.

City continue to contest 115 Premier League charges, covering a nine-year period from 2009, for breaching the league’s financial fair play regulations.

The club’s rocketing wage bill saw salary costs, including the annual £45m salary of striker Erling Haaland, jump £69m to an overall £422.9m last season, despite the club employing 56 fewer football staff than the previous year.

City added Haaland, Julián Álvarez and Kalvin Phillips to their squad in the 2022 summer transfer window and offloaded Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko. The club’s salary costs were also increased by the payment of player bonuses following success in winning the three competitions last season.

In contrast to City’s record high wage bill, neighbours Manchester United reported an annual wage bill of £331.4m last month — £91.8m lower than the salary costs at the Etihad Stadium.

And by reporting revenues of £712.8m, City have also eclipsed the previous British record of £648.4m posted by United in their annual figures last month.

“The 2022-23 season saw Manchester City scale new heights and set new benchmarks,” City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said in a statement.

“In short, last season saw Manchester City achieve the greatest football and commercial year of its storied history.”

City experienced growth over the previous year across all revenue streams of commercial, matchday and broadcasting.

Commercial revenues accounted for £341.4m, followed by broadcast at £299.4m and then matchday at £71.9m, for a profit of £80.4m, nearly doubling the previous year’s record profit of £41.7m.

Manchester City completed the treble for the first time last season. Getty
Matchday revenue saw an increase of £17.4m (32%) with a 99% occupancy rate at the Etihad and four more home games played across all competitions, although the average attendance of 53,249 fans over 19 Premier League games was just shy of their record of 54,130 set in 2018-19.

Broadcasting revenues climbed by £50.4m over the previous year (20.2%), primarily due to the club reaching and winning the Champions League and FA Cup finals.

Profits also benefited from significant player trading with £121.7m generated from transfers, up a significant 79.8% over the previous 12 months.

City earned top spot on the Brand Finance Football 50 list with a brand value of £1.51 billion, passing Real Madrid (£1.46bn). United were fourth at £1.36bn.

It marked the first time an English club had earned the No. 1 spot since 2018 with the report citing City’s decade of dominance on the pitch and the highest revenue of any of the clubs in the report as key reasons for their rise in the rankings.

City also topped the Deloitte Football Money League for the second consecutive year with the biggest revenues of any European football club, ahead of runners-up Madrid.

In early 2023, City were charged by the Premier League with more than 100 breaches of rules that required the club to provide “more financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position,” the league said in a Feb. 6 statement.

Wednesday’s financial report addressed the charges, saying: “In February 2023, in response to the charges, the Club issued a public statement that it welcomes the review of this matter by an independent Commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”

It’s been almost four months since Inter Miami announced the biggest signing in Major League Soccer history; Lionel Messi.

The 36-year-old former Barcelona forward, who was offered €400 million [£344m] a year to join Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal, decided to sign a two-year deal in Fort Lauderdale worth a reported $54 million (£41m].

That base salary, however, could potentially rise to around $62 million (£47m), according to The Express, who have posted a breakdown of that sum.

Messi, who has been in Miami for 17 weeks, takes home a sum of around £918,369 a week, which is the equivalent to:

£131,196 a day
£5,466 an hour
£91.11 a minute
£1.52 a second
A long-term partnership with Adidas also contributes to these sums. Messi’s deal with the sportswear brand is worth a reported £18 million a year, reportedly second only to Neymar, who is said to be paid £32 million by Puma.

The above report also suggests those above numbers could also increase with a potential deal involving a share of the streaming revenue between MLS and Apple.

If those details are accurate, then Messi will have already netted $20.4 million [£16.6m].

Back in October, the MLS Players Association shared information on player wages for the third year running as part of a collective bargaining agreement that runs until 2027.

Messi topped the list, of course, while Toronto forward Lorenzo Insigne and Chicago Fire winger Xherdan Shaqiri completed the top three with total salaries of $15.4 million and $8.1 million respectively.

Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez of LA Galaxy ($7.44 million) and Federico Bernardeschi ($6.3 million) both make the top five.

Lionel Messi’s teammate, Sergio Busquets ($1.75 million) and Jordi Alba ($1.25 million) do not feature in the top ten, although Gerardo Martino’s side lead the wage bill with $39.419 million in “guaranteed compensation”.

The Major League Soccer Players’ Association (MLSPA) has released its 2023 salary guide, with Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi undoubtedly the top earner in the North American league, following his move from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer.

While the 2022 World Cup winner takes the top spot, the top five also includes two Italians.

Toronto FC forward Lorenzo Insigne lags just behind Messi, bagging an annual €14.5M net per season deal, including bonuses, in contrast to the top earner who pockets approximately €19.4M.

Xherdan Shaqiri and Chicharito Hernandez make up the top four, and ex-Juventus winger Federico Bernardeschi, who also plays for Toronto FC, completes the top five. The EURO 2020 winner bags approximately €6M per annum.

The top 20 highest earners pocket more than €2.5M at the least, thus excluding newly-signed Los Angeles FC defender Giorgio Chiellini. The Juventus icon is guaranteed a salary of just over €1M net per season.

Here is the top 20 list (in dollars):
Lionel Messi (Argentina, Inter Miami) $20,446,667
Lorenzo Insigne (Italy, Toronto) $15,400,000.
Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland, Chicago Fire) $8,153,000
Chicharito Hernandez (Mexico, LA Galaxy) $7,443,7505
Federico Bernardeschi (Italy, Toronto) $6,295,381
Sebastian Driussi (Argentina, Austin FC) $6,022,500
Héctor Herrera (Mexico, Houston Dynamo) $5,246. 875
Douglas Costa (Brazil, LA Galaxy) $4,508,333
Christian Benteke (RD Congo, DC United) $4,432,778
Josef Martinez (Venezuela, Inter Miami) $4,391,667
Carlos Vela (Mexico, LAFC) $4,383,900
Teemu Pukki (Finland, Minnesota United) $3,550,000
Carles Gil (Spain, New England Revolution) $3,545,833
Nicolas Lodeiro (Uruguay, Seattle Sounders) $3,256,667
Raul Ruidiaz (Peru, Seattle Sounders) $3,201,120
Hany Mukhtar (Germany, Nashville) $3,188,750
Jozy Altidore (United States, free. Until June 15 at New England) $2,939,963
Sam Surridge (England, Nashville) $2,907. 639
Cucho Hernandez (Colombia, Columbus Crew) $2,886,000
Diego Rossi (Uruguay, Columbus Crew) $2,677,000