Manchester City turnover reaches £347m with losses cut to £23m• Losses include £16m financial fair play penalty
• Deficit reflects ‘new level of financial sustainability’Share 38
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The Guardian, Wednesday 3 December 2014 19.46 GMT Sergio Agüero is doing the business on the field while Manchester City do the business off it. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Manchester City believe they will comply with Uefa’s financial fair play break-even rules this season after announcing they reduced their annual loss to £23m in 2013-14. In the season during which the club won the Premier League and Capital One Cup trophies, City made income of £347m, a £76m increase on 2012-13, by far a record for the club.

The annual accounts show Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, who bought City in 2008, has invested £1.15bn over six years, more than that invested by Roman Abramovich in Chelsea and therefore the most by any owner in English football history. That includes £160m invested during 2013-14 to build the huge academy complex due to open on Monday across the road from the Etihad Stadium. The project has included a contribution of around £20m towards community facilities including a school and leisure centre next to the academy.

Ferran Soriano, City’s chief executive, said the £23m loss, which includes the £16m reduction in Champions League payments from Uefa because of City breaching FFP rules over the 2012 and 2013 accounting years, reflected “a new level of financial sustainability”. Soriano said City were expecting to make a profit in this financial year and to enter next season with “no outstanding sanctions or restrictions”.

City’s wage bill fell by £28m to £205m which the club said was partly because of restructuring involving the formation of a parent company and of group companies to service the other clubs Mansour has bought in New York, Melbourne and Yokohama. The City companies charge each other for services provided; City noted £10m of services the football club had provided to other group companies and £2.6m the club paid the parent company.

Winning the title in the first year of the Premier League’s £5.5bn, 2013-16 TV deal brought City £102m from domestic broadcasting; £31m was made from competing in the Champions League. Commercial income, principally sponsorship by Etihad, other Abu Dhabi companies and increasing “partnerships” around the world, amounted to £166m, also by far a record for City.

Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the senior Abu Dhabi business and political executive who was appointed City’s chairman shortly after Mansour bought the club, said City were now where they hoped to be when the “heavy investment” started. That included the new academy, “planning for which began at the outset of his Highness’ investment”.