Abu Dhabi's Man City to climb world money list

Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City is expected to enter the world's top 10 revenue-generating football clubs next year, Deloitte has said. Its latest Football Money League Table placed the new Premier League champions in 12th position on the back of its 2010-11 season performance. But Deloitte said the club, owned by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour, would break into the top 10 in the 2013 edition of its list. "The club’s heavy squad investment has secured Champions League football for 2011/12. This, when combined with the new Etihad [sponsorship deal], will provide substantial growth across all three revenue sources, and will see City enter the top ten in the Money League next year," Deloitte said. Its 2012 list was topped by Real Madrid whose revenues hit 479.5m euros, a nine percent increase on the previous year. Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Arsenal completed the top five positions. Manchester City's revenues of 169.6m euros during the 2010-11 season saw the club place 12th, down one on the previous season. England retained the largest representation from any single country with six clubs in the top 20, with the other 14 clubs from the other ‘big five’ European leagues. Deloitte said commercial revenue at Manchester City now represents 38 percent of total revenue, having tripled over the past two years. A batch of new sponsorship deals commenced from 2010/11, including those with Heineken and Jaguar, to expand the club’s portfolio which already includes Etihad Airways, Umbro, Aabar, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and Etisalat. The club also secured a ground breaking new ten-year partnership with Etihad covering shirt sponsorship, stadium naming rights and other commercial opportunities, which will further substantially boost commercial revenues from 2011/12. Deloitte also said the full impact of Barcelona’s shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation worth an average of 30m euros a season would boost the club’s revenue in 2011/12. Buoyed by the first year of new domestic and international television deals, Premier League revenues grew 12 percent to £2.3bn in 2010/11, the latest year for which figures are available. That compared with earnings of £1.6bn for the top leagues in Germany and Spain, and £1.4bn for Italy. However, the 20 English clubs made a modest operating profit of only £68m combined. Germany's Bundesliga was Europe's most profitable league, helped by strong sponsorship income and the legacy of stadiums modernised for the 2006 World Cup.