English football club Manchester City suffered a net loss of 126 million pounds during the coronavirus-hit 2019-20 season, the club’s annual report has revealed.
A delay in income from fixtures and players’ sales and season card refunds has resulted in an 11 per cent reduction in the revenue of the club, though the proceeds of Leroy Sane’s switch to Bayern Munich are not included in the accounts.
However, club’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has said that the business is “fundamentally strong, with committed shareholders and with significant assets, built carefully over a decade and upon more than a century of history”.
“Our long-term approach has meant that we are now not wholly dependent on income streams that have been most vulnerable to the ongoing impact of Covid-19,” said Al Mubarak.
Chief executive officer Ferran Soriano said: “Clearly, the 2019-20 accounts in isolation are not the best representation of the reality of the season with delayed player trading and numerous games being played after June 30, 2020, the revenues from which will be accounted in the 2020-21 period.”
“A better financial picture of the Covid years will be provided at the end of the 2020-21 season, when the two seasons are combined and normalised,” he added.
City are on course to win the Premier League this season while they are in the League Cup final, FA Cup semi-finals and quarter-finals of the Champions League.