Fair play, City will make money as well as spend it
The difference for Manchester City between winning the Premier League title and finishing as runners-up could be as much as £30 million, according to a leading expert in football finance. Professor Tom Cannon of the University of Liverpool School of Management believes that being able to bill themselves as champions of England would potentially add that much to commercial revenue in the next year. And while even that sum is less than one-sixth of City's last annual loss (£195m), he believes that the development plans for the whole Etihad Stadium campus could enable them to meet Uefa's imminent Financial Fair Play regulations.
Roberto Mancini's team play at Newcastle today in the single match now most likely to decide the destination of the championship. If they can win it, then Manchester United will still be behind them even with a victory of their own at home to Swansea City later this afternoon. In the final fixtures next Sunday, United appear to face the tougher game, at Sunderland, while City, however historically unpredictable, would be expected to win at home to Queens Park Rangers.
They would then be able to cash in commercially, according to Professor Cannon. "With sponsors, advertisers, prices of season tickets and Champions' League games, executive boxes, overseas tours and so on, it would make a big difference," he said, "especially since it would be the first time since the Sixties that they could call themselves champions.
"Globally it's really important, for instance in the kind of deal you can do for a tour of Asia when you're seen as Premier League champions. All the evidence at the moment is that sponsors and advertisers are basically moving upmarket. I think City have a brilliant communications and marketing team, the best in the Premier League, and they'll be very smart. So all in all you could be adding £25m to £30m to the bottom line..."
