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The Manchester City Football Club have not problems of money but...
Sheikh Mansour has been forced to inject half a billion pounds in cash into Manchester City to cover his club’s runaway expenditure over the past two years, Digger can reveal. Although that sum exceeds the gross domestic product of the Seychelles and Grenada, Mansour’s spending will not stop there.
There are two main routes through which an owner can directly finance a company: either through debt in the form of shareholder loans, as Roman Abramovich did at the outset of his Chelsea ownership, or through equity. It is via the latter route – by issuing new shares to be sold to himself – that Mansour has capitalised City.
The injection of more than £399m up to December last year, much of which went on covering the £304.9m in shareholder loans that had been racked up with Mansour, was just the start. A statement released to Companies House by the board of the Eastlands club’s parent, Manchester City Limited, said Sheikh Mansour had paid £46.2m in cash for new equity issued in May. “The following resolution was passed by the directors of Manchester City Limited on 5 May 2010: that 21,792,452 new ordinary shares be allotted to Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited in consideration of the cash payment of £46.2m.”
There followed another resolution in January, under the terms of which Mansour has been able to fund the club with intermittent investments of cash. On 13 July another £53m came in to the club from Mansour’s coffers, taking the cash investment in the space of slightly more than three months to £99.4m and to within a whisker of £500m in total. That is just what has been specifically announced to Companies House either through City’s parent company accounts or its general filings.
There are indications that Mansour’s total support for the club may even exceed £650m. According to a statement of capital filed with Companies House in July, accompanying the most recent equity issue, there are now 308,465,127 ordinary shares in issue. Assuming that each one of these cost Mansour £2.12, as all those issued this year have, Mansour will have made £650m available to the club.
Contributing to the runaway expenses under Abu Dhabi’s ownership have been staggering transfer fees. Between September 2008 and December 2009, City’s net expenditure on transfers after player sales was about £200m; another net sum of £100m has been spent on players since then.
The wage burden also takes significant support. It is impossible to know exactly what that amounts to until the club’s next set of accounts are released in February. But given that wages were the key contributor to the club’s £92.6m loss in the 12 months to 31 May last year – since when almost £220m net has been splashed out on new players – it is rising fast.
“[There was] a significant increase in operating expenses – primarily driven by increased playing staff remuneration,” said the club’s chief executive, Garry Cook in his statement in last year’s parent company accounts. “It is therefore expected that there will be further significant operating losses reported in future financial periods.”
So with £300m cash spent on new players after player sales, £82.63m spent on wages in the 12 months to 31 May 2009 – a sum that continues to rise – and losses of £96.2m over the same period, Mansour will have to put his hands in his pockets again. It is lucky they are deep.
Wrongs of image rights
Two former chairmen of one of France’s biggest clubs have received suspended prison sentences for having overseen secret image-rights contracts with players between 1998 and 2003. Laurent Perpère and Francis Graille, who were the two chairmen of Paris Saint-Germain between 1998 and 2005, were sentenced to 12 months and eight months respectively, suspended, in a case that also led to Nike Europe being fined €120,000 (£98,000) for its involvement in assisting with the contracts. A spokesman for Nike did not return Digger’s call yesterday.
The effect of the contracts was that players did not have to make tax and social security payments on a proportion of their earnings from the club. Players such as Jay-Jay Okocha and Nicolas Anelka were the beneficiaries of these contracts, according to French court papers seen by the Guardian. The players have not been accused of wrongdoing.
The case is known to have been monitored by HM Revenue & Customs, which is pursuing action against several English football, rugby and cricket clubs for their use of image rights. It has not shrunk from pursuing criminal charges in the past; Harry Redknapp, Milan Mandaric and Peter Storrie – respectively the former manager, chairman and chief executive of Portsmouth – are set to stand trial next year for allegedly having cheated the public revenue. All deny the charges.
Chopped down
Paul Scholes is not the only one at Manchester United capable of hacking down things that get in his way – but this time it is an innocent tree that has been caught in the crossfire. When photographers arrived at United’s Carrington training ground yesterday they went to take up their normal positions around a tree they have often climbed to take sneak pictures of the action during coaching sessions. However, they discovered it had been chopped down. When asked if Scholes had been in the vicinity at the time, United declined to comment.
Cink counts the pennies
For some golfers, the UK tax regime clearly is, er, taxing. At a time when sports stars across the world are complaining about the punitive nature of our tax laws that demand 50% of every penny they earn from prize money and endorsements, prorated to the time they spend in this country, Stewart Cink clearly has tax on his mind. Even with career earnings of £17.7m to the end of 2009, Cink evidently still likes to count the pennies. “Survey time, kids!” announced last year’s Open golf champion to his 1.2m followers on Twitter.
(The Guardian)
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