Men’s English football history was rewritten last season when Manchester City lifted the champions crown for the fourth time in succession. We did so as FIFA Club World Cup Champions and holders of the UEFA Super Cup.
The scale and enormity of these achievements is hard to truly comprehend in the moment, particularly as they followed a treble-winning season and a first-ever UEFA Champions League trophy.
The historic context is daunting. Since 1926 in England, five men’s teams had attempted to win four consecutive top division titles, and all had fallen at the final hurdle. Put simply, in more than a century of English football, no team had been able to achieve four successive championships – until May 2024.
Our constant ambition to target and achieve the unprecedented is a mark of the organisation that we have become. On and off the field, our passion for the next challenge is underpinned by deliberate and detailed planning and a shared belief in the collaborative learning culture that we have built. This organisational approach is now part of our DNA. It is a product of the unwavering focus on constant improvement, in every aspect of the organisation, that has been in place since His Highness Sheikh Mansour became the Club’s custodian in 2008.
That holistic approach meant that last year the Club also achieved its highest-ever revenues of £715 million with £73.8 million in profit. All aspects of the Club’s commercial income were strong, further boosted by player trading income totalling £139 million, a 15% improvement on the previous year.
Significant commercial value comes from the reliability of our organisational ambition and the constantly-evolving approach that it dictates. Fifteen of our commercial partners have been with us for more than five years, and this season Etihad Airways, e& and Experience Abu Dhabi marked 15 years as our partners. It is a source of immense pride to be in a position to deliver the kind of partnerships that generate such meaningful mutual value. Our innovative approach to media and digital strategies is a significant contributor in this regard and an area in which we continue to invest and innovate.
Our focus remains on further evolution and growth and therefore further value creation in all aspects of our business. Infrastructure has been, and always will be, an important focus and in particular the Etihad Campus ecosystem. The current £300 million expansion of the north stand of the stadium builds on our investment in the Co-op Live Arena, and will result in the creation of an entire entertainment destination. Additionally, our new dedicated Women’s training facility, scheduled to open during the 2025-26 season, will sit within an expanded City Football Academy, and reflect our ongoing commitment to the Women’s game and our wish to win titles and set standards.
These are just two examples of our continued reinvestment in our business, our local economy and our community. They are also manifestations of an approach co-authored by our friend Sir Howard Bernstein, who we sadly lost in 2024.
A visionary leader for Manchester and a devoted City fan, I had the privilege of working with him since 2008. His profound understanding of the human and economic impact that football and sport can deliver helped all of us see the transformative opportunities and life chances we could create. I will always be grateful for his wise counsel, and the ambition and determination he helped instil in the Club. The mosaic that now marks Sir Howard Bernstein Way, bridging the City Football Academy to the Etihad Stadium, is both a fitting testament to him and a reassuring reminder that his spirit of endeavour must always be present in our work.
Our experience in developing and executing a world-class infrastructure strategy for Manchester City over the last 16 years has informed similar strategies that we are implementing at the 12 other clubs that now make up the City Football Group. For example, our Stadium in New York, scheduled for completion in 2027, and our new City Football Academies in Melbourne, Girona and Palermo, all benefit from the MCFC journey. In turn, the insights we generate across the CFG organisation in all areas of our operations help us to evolve in Manchester. The momentum of complementary value creation, that we always envisaged for the group, is now real and creating billions of pounds of value.
The unique working environment that we have created in Manchester and around the CFG world attracts the very best talent from the football industry and significantly other industries. It means that our staff are sought after by the best sports teams in the world and many of our alumni now hold significant leadership and influential positions at Premier League and other clubs. Whilst this is a natural outcome of success, our focus is to remain the industry employer of choice by ensuring that we continue to invest in our people and the creative and innovative ecosystem in which they can flourish.
Doing so will ensure that we continue to set new standards and achieve unprecedented outcomes. That said, the 2023-24 season is one that we should all take the time to reflect upon as something incredibly special and important in the history of Manchester City.
