Manchester City beat Real Madrid again. Already ruthless executioner of the defending champion in the semi-finals of the Champions League (1-1, 4-0), the best club in England overtook them for the first time in terms of commercial value (4.073 billion euros). euros, against 4.006 billion) in 2023. This is revealed by a study revealed on Thursday by Football Benchmarka platform specializing in the economy of the most popular sport on the planet.
In the running for a formidable Premier League – Cup – C1 treble, the Cityzens are walking on water before the European final this Saturday in Istanbul, against Inter Milano. Two years after failing against Chelsea (0-1), Pep Guardiola’s players leave largely favorites to (finally) satisfy the ultimate quest of the club bought in 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), a company headed by Mansour Ben Zayed al Nahyan (aka Sheikh Mansour), half-brother of the current president of the United Arab Emirates.
The Skyblues had just finished 9th in the Premier League, 32 points behind the cumbersome and prestigious neighbor United, king of England and Europe, since winner of the Champions League the same year. Their track record, blocked in the 1970s, smelled strongly of mothballs.
“Like Paris Saint-Germain at the time, it was an outsider, which we did not necessarily take seriously, observes football historian Paul Dietschy. Abu Dhabi showed patience that Qatar did not have with PSG [depuis 2011]. The leaders pursued a medium- and long-term policy, which is now bearing fruit. »
The star is Guardiola
Seven league titles and three Cups later, City is no longer the team of the Gallagher brothers, its most famous fans, but, since 2016, that of the charismatic Guardiola. “The star of the club is the coach, resumes the director of the biannual review Football(s). He relies on very good players, like Kevin De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva, who are not quite international stars like Benzema and Mbappé can be. But it is a team made up of excellent and complementary elements, which make up a homogeneous squad, with a style of play that is difficult to counter. »
Remarkably stable, another guarantee of success, the puzzle was intelligently completed last summer thanks to the arrival of Erling Haaland, the Attila of the penalty areas, from Dortmund. If we wanted to be petty, we could almost speak of anti-PSG, vacuum cleaner of world stars on the decline or unmotivated and frantic consumer of coaches.
“I don’t really understand the difference in treatment between the two clubs”, cuts Vincent Chaudel, who recalls that, until this Saturday evening in any case, City has been failing in C1 for even longer than Paris. “There is a snake-charming side, develops the founding economist of the Sport Business Observatory. The dressing is beautiful, the work very well done, the game enjoyable, the stadium sings. But it will be 15 years that they run after the Champions League. »
And then, behind the pretty window, the back room reveals a much less romantic vision of football. Manchester City is the figurehead of the City Football Group, a galaxy of 13 clubs scattered across all continents, from Troyes to Melbourne via New York and Mumbai (India). All that is missing is the takeover of En Avant Terre-Adélie (Antarctica) for globalization to be completed.
Division between “secondary leagues” and “big leagues”
“It’s a group that represents the financialization of world football and the domination of some championships over others,” said Paul Dietschy. There is an international division of labour: the secondary leagues take care of the training and then ship the players to the big leagues. It’s a system for testing players, coaches… In fact, the operation is the same as in a training center, where out of 100 players at the start, there will only be three or four pros. »
In the technician department, for example, Patrick Kisnorbo, Australian champion in 2021 with Melbourne, was sent to Troyes to see what he could give in a higher competition. The record is disastrous: 15 defeats, seven draws and a small victory. 13th in Ligue 1 in November, after the ousting of Bruno Irles, Estac finished 19th and relegated… This season in hell has erased the rather good impression left so far by City Group since the takeover of the club then in Ligue 2 , in September 2020.
The Trojan example
“At the beginning, it was a success, we went up to Ligue 1 [en 2021], the leaders have put in the means, with sums never seen before, rewinds Richard, 26 years old, including 13 as a subscriber to the Aube stadium. We saw it as a good thing, despite the fear of losing our identity, and becoming an uninteresting satellite club. Last year went just as well. »
And then wreckage, despite the loan signings of Portuguese attacking midfielder Rony Lopes (Sevilla FC) or that of the very young Frenchman Wilson Odobert (17 years old), at the end of the aspiring contract with PSG. “Players from all over the world have arrived, without any ties to the club, regrets the Trojan fan. We got the impression that they didn’t give a damn, that they were just there to honor their contract, without thinking about the future of the club or the fans. »
“When the City Group took Troyes, it had not even calculated that the club could go up to Ligue 1, supports Vincent Chaudel. It serves him to capture young French players, to give them playing time.” Knowing that only a tiny minority of these kids lined up in Troyes, Girona, Lommel or other subsidiaries will have the chance to tread the lawn of the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
Annoyed, Richard goes further than the economist: “City Group had said that it was not planned in their plan to be promoted to L1, so we suspect them of having wanted to go down to be able to play young people. It’s a huge sense of waste. ” In April, in the columns of East Lightning, Erick Mombaerts did not seem to be overly formalized by an already inevitable relegation. “The “City game” is set up when it is time, when all the elements are together, let go of the former coach, now representative of the City Group in Aube. It was not the moment “.
Beyond the simple Trojan case, timeshare draws “the real danger of football” for Vincent Chaudel.
“What risks destabilizing the market for this sport is the City model, assures the economist. Clubs that buy a lot of stars, there have always been some. But from the moment you can play on several tables… We saw it with Red Bull, which had Salzburg and Leipzig in the same competition [la Ligue des champions en 2017-2018]. »
If UEFA prohibits two clubs depending on the same shareholder from playing together in the European Cup, there is always a way to tweak, as the famous Austrian drinks firm did six years ago. Salzburg had redesigned its organization chart to get into the nails. The case arises again this year, with AC Milan and TFC, both owned by the American fund RedBird Capital Partners. “Let’s imagine that you own 51% of the shares of a club, image Vincent Chaudel. You go down to 49%, but you tell some buddies to buy 2% to be back to 51%. » Clever.
Heavy clouds above the Etihad
If Manchester City finally win the Champions League this Saturday, and score the same hat-trick as rivals United did in 1999, all those big-money stories will be drowned out for a while in the tears of Guardiola and Skyblues fans. But the investigation announced in early February by the Premier League, too slow for the taste of competing clubs, will eventually move forward.
An independent commission must examine more than a hundred possible breaches of financial rules between 2009 and 2018, whether concerning the club’s income or certain remuneration, such as that of former manager Roberto Mancini. The worst penalty incurred? Quite simply exclusion from the championship.
Already punished then cleared
“Will the Premier League accept sanctions that risk penalizing one of the spearheads of English football? asks Paul Dietschy. “Some in England would like Manchester City to be severely punished, continues Vincent Chaudel. But in case of a new Super League offensive. It would be better for the Premier League if everyone were united as City can end up on the other side if there are heavy penalties. »
Mind you, Sheikh Mansour’s club has seen others. In 2020, he was banned from European competitions for two years by UEFA for alleged breaches of its regulations. Before being cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in July of the same year.