Manchester City finished the 2015/16 season with a net profit of £20.48 million (around €22 million), twice the figure they posted on 31 May 2015 when they closed their accounts with a profit of £10 million, as confirmed in a club statement. Today’s announcement is the club’s second consecutive year in profit, but the accounts also show a record turnover of £391.77 million (€435 million). There was a profit on player trading of £20.71 million, a substantial increase compared to the previous year which closed with a profit of around £13 million. Total costs reached £389.7 million, of which £174.36 million (half of the total revenue) was down to player wages.
Leaving player trading to one side, the club’s turnover was more than £391 million. Commercial revenue contributed £177 million, around 45%, of the total turnover, followed by TV broadcasting rights, which reached around £100 million. Manchester City earned £61.24 million from UEFA during 2015/16, almost doubling their prize money from the previous season (£32.8 million). Matchday income, meanwhile, totalled £52.5 million (13% of the total) – an increase of £9 million compared to the previous year.
The £20 million profit follows the profit of £11 million made during the previous season, the first year of profit achieved since the takeover. As the club confirmed in an infographic (reproduced here), they have only recorded two seasons in profit in the last five years, reporting losses of £98 mln in 2011/12, £53 mln the following year and £23 mln in 2013/14.
According to Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the club’s chairman, following the results achieved during the 2015/16 season “Manchester City have now reached a level of sporting and commercial maturity that allows for one to feed the other.” The previous years, according to Al Mubarak, were part of “the vision for success that we have been working towards since 2008” before underlining that “City finished the 2015/16 season with a profit of £20.5 million, while increasing revenue streams for the eighth consecutive year and continuing to operate with zero financial debt.”
Among the major events of the financial year were the introductions of New York City FC and Melbourne City FC to the City Football Group holding company, which owns City themselves, in addition to a deal with Chinese investors completed in December 2015. In his message to the supporters, Al Mubarak said that he “was proud to announce a $400 million investment from a consortium led by China Media Capital Holdings, which valued the Group at $3 billion.”
