The 2022-23 season saw Manchester City scale new heights and set new benchmarks. The reward for hard work, commitment and innovation was felt throughout the City family.
On the field, for our men’s first team, there was a third successive Premier League title, an incredible FA Cup win and, on a thrilling night in Istanbul, a first-ever Champions League title to round off an historic treble. Off the pitch there were new record profits from record revenues of £713 million.
In short, last season saw Manchester City achieve the greatest football and commercial year of its storied history.
The season was the validation of a philosophy and sustained approach that has defined the Club since His Highness Sheikh Mansour became its custodian in 2008.
It’s an approach that has always respected, and continuously built upon, the Club’s near 130-year history. It is founded on three key elements: putting in place all of the necessary ingredients to create football teams that excite, entertain and win silverware; relentlessly strengthening the Club’s sustainable commercial and financial positions; and maximising its ability to serve the growing communities of which it sits at the heart. We regard each of these elements as equally important and completely co-dependent on one another.
Behind the first team trophies and financial headlines, and against these three areas of focus, there sit less obvious, but equally important, outcomes. For our Ownership, Board and Executive Leadership these outcomes and their associated metrics demonstrate that the Club has never been stronger, nor had greater potential to continue to evolve and succeed.
For example, in the 2022-23 season, there were sixty-four graduates of the Manchester City Academy playing for teams in the top five European Leagues and the professional English Football Leagues – 13 of them in the Premier League. We are clearly creating players of high quality for our Club and English and European football. In doing so we are delivering important players and sustainable revenues for Manchester City’s broader football ambitions.
We also continue to be a destination of choice for the world’s best young and established male and female footballing talent. There were 16 Manchester City players at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 14 at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which is a testament to the depth of quality across our playing staff.
The 2022-23 season saw us generate £120 million from player trading, much of which related to academy graduates. Graduates of an academy that delivered the Premier League 2 and U18 league titles for the third successive year. That’s a clean sweep of Premier League titles three years in a row – a remarkable record of consistency that underpins our first team results and underlines the work and the commitment I see across our football club every single day.
It’s the same record of consistency that has seen us participate in 13 consecutive campaigns in the UEFA Champions League, and be in the knock-out stages every single year for the past decade. The same consistency that has seen us win five Premier League titles in six seasons and our Women’s team continuously compete for, and deliver, silverware.
There can be no greater proof of the hard work, dedication, commitment and talent across every aspect of our football club than these records of consistent performance in ever-changing circumstances. It reveals us to be constantly capable of learning from adversity and able to always challenge ourselves to successfully innovate in all areas of our football operations.
Looking away from the field of play, the Club’s work is now delivered by a growing workforce of over 500 people directly employed by Manchester City, with many more people and businesses connected through our network of suppliers and partners. They are all part of a now thriving social and economic ecosystem that sits at the heart of Manchester City’s ability to succeed. At the same time, this enables us to give back to the City of Manchester and play an active role as an engine of economic growth in the wider region.
Since 2008, we have overseen over £700 million of investment into football and entertainment infrastructure on the Etihad Campus and in East Manchester. Our long-term infrastructure investment strategy is now annually contributing significantly to the sustainable football, commercial, and community outcomes that we are witnessing.
Last year, whilst work continued at pace on the Etihad Campus with the building of the Co-op Live arena, we announced that our infrastructure strategy will be expanded still further through more than £300 million of investment into East Manchester via the Club’s entertainment destination, delivering 2,600 new jobs, prioritised for people from Greater Manchester.
Importantly the work of City in the Community continued with strength and saw engagement and connection with over 18,000 people in 2022-23, adding to the tens of thousands who have benefitted from CITC’s sustained engagement over the decades.
I want to take the opportunity to formally and personally thank Alex Williams who for 33 years has personified the hard work, dedication and commitment to giving back to the community that CITC depends upon. Alex retires with the Club’s ongoing gratitude and respect and with our commitment that the Club understands its responsibility to continue to replicate his work to reflect the values that Manchester City was founded on.
To that end, our approach has always been to focus on the way we do things, as much as the results we want to attain – both on and off the field. The lasting long-term economic and social benefits being created by the Club for its community are therefore fundamental to how we view our progress. We understand the significance of the ongoing direct and indirect impact to the Manchester and North West economies of a business that generates £700 million in annual revenues, and it is a responsibility that we take incredibly seriously.
The commercial momentum that now underpins the Club has always been built through innovation and ambition. The 2022-23 season saw us break new commercial thresholds in dramatic ways. Retail sales saw 85% year-on-year growth; by the end of the season the Club’s social media accounts had a total of 132 million followers – with the Club’s main social accounts facilitating almost 7 billion video views; and significant new commercial partners joined the City family, and existing partners renewed, making our global reach bigger than ever. These are the kind of commercial performances that helped Manchester City to be named as the most valuable football club brand in the world by the Brand Finance Football 50 report.
In the aftermath of the UEFA Champions League win in Turkey and the completion of ‘The Treble’ the question I was asked most often, was ‘How do you top that?’
The answer is by doubling down on the proven philosophes and practices that have brought us this success and to challenge ourselves to continue to constantly innovate in order to achieve new levels of performance both on and off the field.
We will continue to question all the industry norms, we will evaluate our successes and learn from any failures. We will not be afraid to set new goals and develop new strategies that deliver for our Club, its communities and stakeholders and especially for the fans.
Success today simply means further investment for tomorrow. Our financial health and on field success mean everyone connected to Manchester City can look forward to the future with excitement. Our collective achievements give me huge confidence that together we can accomplish even more in the years to come.
