Man City become first British club to post £400m wage bill

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.”