Who is the owner of Manchester City FC?
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One of the most successful sides in recent times, Manchester City has been among England’s elite for quite some years now. Based in the British city of Manchester, City play their home matches at the Etihad Stadium. After gaining promotion for the last time in 2002, Manchester City have gone from strength to strength since their takeover in 2008.
Ever since their first Premier League title in 2012, the Sky Blues have won it a further four times to date. Overall, the Citizens have also won the FA Cup twice, League Cup six times and the Community Shield three times in the Premier League era. Now, we take a look at City’s owners who were essential for the skyrocketing of the club’s fortunes.
The City Football Group and the takeover in 2008
The club came into existence when Ardwick AFC was dissolved in the year 1894 and was reformed as Manchester City FC. The very first chairman was John Chapman, soon succeeded by an influential board member, Edward Hulton. The chairmanship of the club changed hands throughout its tumultuous history, with inconsistent periods of both success and failures.
In the 1970s, the club experienced one of its most successful periods with Joe Mercer as manager and Malcolm Allisson as coach, under constantly changing chairmen. Their next era came when the ownership changed hands from the Alexander family to minority shareholder Peter Swales. In the next twenty-one years, the club saw a total of eleven managers but their owners pumped in generous money when it came to transfer fees.
Soon, fans grew impatient and called for the appointment of Francis Lee as chairman, and this ended up being the case. The next major change came in 2007 when Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra took over the club but his assets were investigated and declared to be corrupt. Stepping in to save a club in disarray was the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), which took over the club on 1 September 2008. Currently, the club is owned by City Football Group, 78% of which is owned by ADUG and other major shareholders include Silver Lake, China Media capital and CITIC Capital.
Sheikh Mansour, the head of Abu Dhabi United Group, has invested a total of €2.9 billion in the club so far, and has been rewarded with rich dividends as the club has won a total of thirteen trophies in the thirteen years after takeover. The revenue gained by the club too has grown exponentially: from €102.2m in 2008/09 to €609.6m in 2018/19 (the last season not affected by the pandemic).
Net Worth of Manchester City FC
According to Forbes, Manchester City is worth $4 billion, making it the sixth most valuable football club at the moment. Only Manchester United and Liverpool are ahead in terms of net worth when it comes to net worth, and Manchester City is the only club to be debt-free out of these three. Sheikh Mansour himself has an estimated market worth of $22 billion, owing to his stakes in various business ventures and his political prowess of being the Deputy Prime Minister of UAE and one of the royal family of Abu Dhabi.
The last two years have seen a 49% rise in value of the club, with City making an annual revenue of $609 million. With respect to match-day income, the Etihad stadium can seat up to 55,017 people: making it the fifth largest Premier League stadium. The clubs earned €62.4 million in gate receipts in 2018/19.
Also Read: Who is the owner of Manchester United
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Sabarisha R
(114 Articles Published)