City Football Group (CFG), the parent company of 12 soccer clubs worldwide, has reported a significant pre-tax loss of £126.9 million for the financial year 2022-23, despite securing record revenue.
Despite the loss, CFG managed to secure a record revenue of £877.1 million ($1.1 billion) in the same financial year, up from 2022’s total of £705.1 million. This increase is attributed to various income streams including match day activities, commercial activities such as sponsorship and broadcasting revenue.
Among this income, £100.8 million comes from match day activities such as ticket sales, £417.4 million comes from commercial activities like sponsorships, and around £358 million comes from broadcasting.
From this latter stream alone, TV rights fees generated by UEFA - European soccer's governing body - amounted to an impressive sum of £114.4 million.
CFG clubs present in almost every top leagues across world
While CFG owns or holds stakes in 12 soccer clubs worldwide and is controlled by Abu Dhabi United Group which bought English football heavyweights Manchester City in 2013; only a fraction (£162.6m) of its total revenue came from markets outside the UK.
Manchester City contributed significantly to CFG's earnings with its accounts showing a Premier League-wide record-breaking revenue figure for the EPL champions at an astounding sum of £712.6m; up from their previous year's figure (£613m).
Including player trading figures, Manchester City made a profit of about £80.3m for CFG during this period – nearly double that recorded in 2022 (£41.m). The team’s three main income streams – commercial activity, broadcast rights and matchday sales – all showed significant year-on-year growth, reflecting the club's historic season winning the Premier League title, UEFA Champions League and FA Cup.
Controversy around working of CFG clubs always big story
Despite Manchester City's success on and off the pitch, it is currently under investigation by the Premier League for over 100 alleged financial rule breaches spanning nine seasons. The club is also being scrutinized for a subsequent failure to comply with investigators over the last four years.
CFG’s network includes clubs such as Manchester City, Melbourne City, Mumbai City, New York City, Mondevideo City Torque, Troyes, Lommel SK in Belgium; Girona FC in Spain; Shenzhen Pengcheng FC in China; Yokohama F.Marinos in Japan; Palermo FC in Italy and Esporte Clube Bahia in Brazil. Despite its global reach and record revenue figures this year however; CFG has yet to overcome its financial losses.
