Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak gave a rare but engaging interview to club media as he firmly rejected assertions that they achieved the elusive treble due to their financial dominance.
City were unstoppable as they deservedly swept the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup titles in a stellar season for Pep Guardiola’s magnificent men, albeit with the success arriving under an ominous cloud bearing the weight of 115 charges hurled at them by the Premier League earlier this year over alleged breaches of the League’s profit and sustainability regulations spanning over more than a decade.
It had been quite an uphill task in recent years for Liverpool to keep up with City and their owners Fenway Sports – with the Manchester club owned by Sheikh Mansour and the City Football Group since 2008 eclipsing the Reds’ own success and ability to generate bigger revenues.
Al Mubarak, speaking to the club’s official YouTube channel, was queried on the charges leveled at the club, with a legal process having now beginning to play out that is predicted to take years as opposed to months.
“Obviously I can’t talk about them, unfortunately, for legal reasons,” said the City chairman.
“We are going through the legal proceedings that take whatever time they take and when we are done and I will give you my very blunt views. I have very strong views but I am going to be restrained.
“It is very frustrating as it takes so much from the great work that is happening at this club, and it is happening not just on the football pitch.
“What these players have achieved, the treble, is incredible. I’d rather people focus on their football and what they are achieving on the pitch and what they are achieving in every competition that they are in. That is the reality.”
Addressing criticism directed at the club that they have financially spent their way to success, the City owner stated that the Citizens had now evolved into a ‘commercial machine’ and that they were in reality spending far less than their rivals when it came to net spend in the transfer market. Apparently over the last five years City’s net spend has leveled out at £204m, a figure that places them eighth in the Premier League behind Aston Villa, Newcastle United, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea. 11th on the list at £158.4m are Liverpool.
Al Mubarak said: “The club as a whole is well run. Today the value of this group is over $6bn. We have created so much value and we have brought in world class investors. Why? Because we have a commercial machine here, one of the best in the world. Our executives are being targeted by the best teams in the world, always.
“By the way, that’s a credit to us. We are producing not just the best talent on the pitch, not just the best talent in the academies, not just the best talent in the group, but producing the best executives, scouts and coaches in the world.
“We are the number one football brand in the world. These are the facts. The club generates tremendous sales. Look at what we produce in terms of our academy, from our first team. Look at last year, look at our net spend. We can go on for half an hour right now with me just giving you data in terms of net spend over the last year, three years, five years or 10 years. Look at every single one of them.
“These are the facts, and compare us to our competition. People throw at us that we are the biggest spenders and have the biggest squad but, again, I wish people can just pause and ask the question, get the facts and then comment.
“We have so much more to achieve and the journey continues.”