City & FFP | 2020/21 Accounts released | Revenues of £569.8m, £2.4m profit (p 2395)

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

[quote="FanchesterCity"]It depends on where you believe City are on the growth curve.... are we just getting going and hope to grow at an even faster rate (unlikely), or are we now starting to slow down (more likely)?

That's not to say we aren't continuing to grow, only that the rate of growth is unlikely to be as dramatic / good as it has been, nor does it mean it's impossible we'll exceed all expectations, but it's unlikely.

Whilst we might be just about making a profit, we still aren't whiter than white in most critics eyes. The Etihad deal (rightly or wrongly) is still seen by many skeptics as questionable (along with many other similar deals). It's an easy accusation to throw and won't really go away until we start attracting major sponsors from around the globe.

Once we get a blue chip sponsor from Europe / America / Far East at a level comparable with Arsenal / Chelsea / United etc, most of those accusations will fade away, but until then, we're stuck with it.

We can't spend in the manner we have in the past. It wasn't sustainable then or now. We can't 'blow everybody out of the water'.
What we can do is compete with most of the European elite, and that's all we ever really asked for isn't it? - the chance to compete.

We're in the top half dozen clubs now, and if we can continue to grow, we should be able to stay in that bracket.
We'll probably still struggle to complete with Barca, Bayern and Real Madrid, and possibly United in terms of spend, but we'll be as close to them as we've ever been, and close enough to be able to produce teams that COULD win the CL once a decade.

One final point, but this is crucial.... Revenue is NOT profit.
Profit is more important to us than revenue, although the two often go hand in hand, they needn't do.

A club can have huge revenues and make a loss, whilst another club can have relatively modest revenues and great profits due to a high margin on their product / sales.[/quote]

Our chairman is, I believe, firmly of the opinion that we will overtake United as the English club with the biggest income in the next five years. Having seen what has been achieved in the last five years I tend to believe him! Training complex? Collar site?

 

[Del_Bosque]

We've spent £200m and over the last 2 seasons and have just turned a profit in FFP terms.

Means we could keep spending at our current rate and have no issues

However, we've got the following about to boost our revenue

Ground Expansion
Increased CL Prize Money
New Sponsorships (rumoured to be record breaking)
Uplifted Sponsorships (Again rumoured to be record breaking)
New BPL TV deal

By financial season 2016/17 I'd be surprised if our revenues aren't where Barca and Madrid are now, and that's without any un-forseen spikes in income (housing project?)

In a crude sense that'd mean we can spend Barca/Madrid level fee's every year

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

We are without question exceptionally well placed.

We are in the CL.
We have a strong squad with our best players signed up.
We have an owner who has brought with him a significant amount of commercial income.
The owners are also massively cash rich, lack of cash is the biggest problem for 99% of football clubs for us only FFP stops us spending more.

Our only real weakness is the gulf in profile to the old guard of European clubs. We are in competition with the best in Europe for players and sponsors and we need to capitalise on our success to date and build on it. A good run in the CL would help massively in that regard.

 

[VOOMER]

It mus be obvious to all that the claims that these regulations had anything at all to do with level playing fields, financial stability or sporting integrity are nothing more than claptrap to give a veneer of respectability to what was a crude ploy to make it impossible for one, then two, Arab owned clubs to compete with those clubs which Platini felt had been essential to the success of the CL, and which depended on CL revenues. City and PSG were fined so much simply because everyone knows they can afford it. Just like the fine facing QPR, it was a greedy, grasping bargain agreed by competitors to further their own unlawful interests. What the courts will see clearly is that shareholders are to be told how they must spend their money and how they must not, while American corporations without any other interest in the game are to be allowed to bankroll clubs for as long as it serves their interests. The machinery set up by UEFA to enforce these regulations has just shown that it won't enforce them consistently or even handedly, but this is irrelevant. There are four, five, six legal challenges currently before the courts? UEFA's regulations must surely be laughed out of court.

We all know why the rules were made and who the target was. It will leave a sour taste in the mouth if after taking our punishment and being labelled as cheats, these rules are suddenly relaxed or scrapped altogether.
The damage has already been done, and our reputation has taken a battering.
In terms of challenging for the title or bringing in the best players, then it was just a "pinch" However, in the wider scheme of things our reputation has taken a real mauling. We got caught financially doping our club(whatever that means). We know its nonsense, but our rivals and the media will always have that stick to beat us with. Which is why we should not have accepted FFP and should have fought it through every legal channel we could.

If this is the outcome, we will be a very happy bunch of campers as the "old guard", will be obliterated.

 

[onceabluealways]

It depends on where you believe City are on the growth curve.... are we just getting going and hope to grow at an even faster rate (unlikely), or are we now starting to slow down (more likely)?

That's not to say we aren't continuing to grow, only that the rate of growth is unlikely to be as dramatic / good as it has been. That's not to say it's impossible we'll exceed all expectations, but it's unlikely.

Whilst we might be just about making a profit, we still aren't whiter than white in most critics eyes. The Etihad deal (rightly or wrongly) is still seen by many skeptics as questionable (along with many other similar deals). It's an easy accusation to throw and won't really go away until we start attracting major sponsors from around the globe.

Once we get a blue chip sponsor from Europe / America / Far East at a level comparable with Arsenal / Chelsea / United etc, most of those accusations will fade away, but until then, we're stuck with it.

We can't spend in the manner we have in the past. It wasn't sustainable then or now. We can't 'blow everybody out of the water'.
What we can do is compete with most of the European elite, and that's all we ever really asked for isn't it? - the chance to compete.

We're in the top half dozen clubs now, and if we can continue to grow, we should be able to stay in that bracket.
We'll probably still struggle to complete with Barca, Bayern and Real Madrid, and possibly United in terms of spend, but we'll be as close to them as we've ever been, and close enough to be able to produce teams that COULD win the CL once a decade.

One final point, but this is crucial.... Revenue is NOT profit.
Profit is more important to us than revenue, although the two often go hand in hand, they needn't do.

A club can have huge revenues and make a loss, whilst another club can have relatively modest revenues and great profits due to a high margin on their product / sales.

Don't think we are quite at the slow down stage yet. If we have increases in the Etihad and Nike deals in the pipeline plus other sponsors for the CFA lined up added to the TV increases we should see a another large increase in income over the next year or two, after that things will probably start to slow.

I agree and if we start to really challenge in the CL then it could bring in significant additional revenue.

 

[stony]

It mus be obvious to all that the claims that these regulations had anything at all to do with level playing fields, financial stability or sporting integrity are nothing more than claptrap to give a veneer of respectability to what was a crude ploy to make it impossible for one, then two, Arab owned clubs to compete with those clubs which Platini felt had been essential to the success of the CL, and which depended on CL revenues. City and PSG were fined so much simply because everyone knows they can afford it. Just like the fine facing QPR, it was a greedy, grasping bargain agreed by competitors to further their own unlawful interests. What the courts will see clearly is that shareholders are to be told how they must spend their money and how they must not, while American corporations without any other interest in the game are to be allowed to bankroll clubs for as long as it serves their interests. The machinery set up by UEFA to enforce these regulations has just shown that it won't enforce them consistently or even handedly, but this is irrelevant. There are four, five, six legal challenges currently before the courts? UEFA's regulations must surely be laughed out of court.

We all know why the rules were made and who the target was. It will leave a sour taste in the mouth if after taking our punishment and being labelled as cheats, these rules are suddenly relaxed or scrapped altogether.
The damage has already been done, and our reputation has taken a battering.
In terms of challenging for the title or bringing in the best players, then it was just a "pinch" However, in the wider scheme of things our reputation has taken a real mauling. We got caught financially doping our club(whatever that means). We know its nonsense, but our rivals and the media will always have that stick to beat us with. Which is why we should not have accepted FFP and should have fought it through every legal channel we could.

If this is the outcome, we will be a very happy bunch of campers as the "old guard", will be obliterated.

Unless of course you believe Khaldoon when he says the club is aiming to be self-sustaining. That means we will be able to compete with everyone, not blow them out of the water with stupid transfer fees and ridiculous wages.

 

[Pam]

Can anyone clear something up for me. It's expected we're going to spend big this summer, does this now mean we can spend millions every summer from now? Im not that screwed on with the whole amortisation stuff.

In short No.

The underlying principle of FFP is a limit on losses. If we produce a set of accounts with a big loss we will get screwed again. 10 clubs in Europe have fallen foul for their last set of financials and have had fines / squad limits published recently. Our last set was (as far as we can tell) within the maximum loss level. So right now we think we are fine and are free of the previous restrictions (again as far as we can tell). We can not be clear as the statements issued by Uefa and the club are often limited in detail and often slightly contradictory.

If FFP is here to stay and survives legal challenges we must operate near to break even every year. We can’t go round spunking cash and we need to keep the income levels up but we’re in the CL and the PL TV money is about to increase massively. There is a delay in releasing accounts so things like our title win last year and the increasing TV money will hit accounts we release next year and the year after.

So right now we are looking good.

The courts move at a snail's pace but it will be worth it in the end.

 

[Pam]

PSG are limited to the same spending as last summer, but we aren't...

Guess they didn't brush up on their negotiation skills enough.

50 million quids for Luis didn't help matters.

 

[Pam]

It's going to be a right laugh this summer when we spend a shit load of money. Chelsea, United, Liverpool and arsenal fans genuinely think we're screwed next season due to ffp. I think there's going to be a lot of moaning coming from them this summer.

edit for you, I think there's going to be a lot of moaning coming from the press this summer... Baaaawaaa

They have absolutely started already and already it is worse than ever.

LOL

 

[CC1]

It's going to be a right laugh this summer when we spend a shit load of money. Chelsea, United, Liverpool and arsenal fans genuinely think we're screwed next season due to ffp. I think there's going to be a lot of moaning coming from them this summer.

edit for you, I think there's going to be a lot of moaning coming from the press this summer... Baaaawaaa

They have absolutely started already and already it is worse than ever.

LOL

Who has and what has??