Manchester City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak conducted his annual end-of-season interview with Chris Bailey in Manchester
On Manchester City Women winning the WSL title…
“Nothing, obviously, gives you momentum like winning. And winning this league this year was perfectly timed, really perfectly timed. I think this is a great team – it’s a great team that faced adversity from losing the league in the way that we lost it the previous season and [to] come back strong in a way where, you know, we play a particular brand of football, attacking football, goals, exciting football, talented players, like [Bunny] Shaw and others, and a top manager. Fans are embracing this team – and then we win it with style.”
On the new Women’s training facility…
“That facility, I think, sets the new standard of facilities for the women’s game. I think it’s the best in the country and it’s just a testament to our commitment to the game. And to have the team celebrate that championship sitting together watching it on TV was wonderful. And to have that spirit, to have that unity, to have that camaraderie between all of our teams in one campus – it’s what makes this Club unique. That edge we have in having everybody together in one campus and to have the infrastructure built to support that and to be tailor made for our needs, for our requirements at a high quality and a high standard. That facility is a representation of that but it’s also part of an ethos that covers the entire campus, which I believe is our edge.”
On Bunny Shaw…
“She is an exceptional player. We have between Shaw and Haaland, our men’s and women’s teams, the best goalscorers in the world. And there’s no secret why we win leagues.”
On the importance of our Academy…
“It’s very, very important and I’ve said that, Chris, over the years in our interviews. It is foundational for the footballing future of this Club and for the economic future of this Club. This Academy is able to sustain the success. When we are able to produce the talent we are producing that are going into the first team, like Nico O’Reilly, or moving out and bringing in very important revenue for the Club. It is crucial. I think this year is an important year where you saw again more talent. I mean, we’ve done that consistently.”
On confidence that the production line in the Academy will continue…
“Very confident. Very confident, because you just have to look at our track [record] over these past years and then look at the pipeline today. And when you speak to our leaders within the Academy today, they will look at you with a high level of confidence because we see it, we know it. We have some exceptional players in the Academy.”
On The Pep Guardiola Stand…
“Well, first of all it’s a very important investment by the Club. A very important investment by His Highness Sheikh Mansour in the community here in Manchester. It’s a continuous investment strategy that has never stopped. From the first day we started, 2008, to where we are today. Every year, we keep finding the right opportunities to invest in the city, to invest in this community, and to keep generating the right revenue for the growth of the Group. And we’ve done that, I think, consistently and we’ve never stopped. This is a big investment. It’s a big step for us, following the investment in the Co-op Arena which was a huge success. The Co-op Arena, I think, has added tremendous value to the Club – but more importantly has added tremendous value to the community and the city here in Manchester. And now you look at this investment with the development of the North Stand, with the new boxes over there, with the hotel that we are developing, and then the whole food and beverage space that we are developing around that, it’s going to be transformational, I think, for the Club. I don’t think people yet understand or appreciate the difference this is going to bring.”
On the Medlock Square development…
“It’s a total entertainment development. I think in this country there is nothing like it. I will actually take it a bit further. In Europe there is nothing like it in terms of a complete development. This one I think is a hybrid because it does that, what I’ve just said, but it also I think adds a lot of value to the city. Adding these entertainment venues to the city and allowing our campus, that entire campus, to be used essentially 365 days a year where it’s not just on game day. There is going to be the museum, there’s going to be the square with the food and beverage and the new PUMA store over there, the level of activation that’s going to be continuous, the commercial value we’re going to be able to generate in that space, the hotel, the conference facility we have over there, the connectivity to the Co-op Arena.”
On continued infrastructure…
“You use the word cost when you refer to infrastructure, I use the word investment. Investment generates revenue, generates return. Cost is just a negative on your balance sheet. Everything we do here is we invest, we invest and maybe the P&L for that particular year, like in this year, it can be a negative but that’s just a time element. Ultimately, it’s about revenue generation. Ultimately, it’s about profit generation. And ultimately it stays in the Club because that’s what we’ve done. In 18 years, we’ve not taken a pound of profit outside of the Club. What we’ve done for 18 years is invest and invest and invest and grow this Club and grow this Group and grow the assets of this Group to continue to generate value, generate revenue and generate sustainable profit for this operation and add value to the community. That’s been our mission, that’s what I think we continue to accomplish. And going forward, even in this environment, this is not an easy environment. I know it’s a difficult time for many people in this economic cycle and we try our best. By investing we try to generate revenue, but more importantly we create jobs, we create economic activity. Bring in investment, bring in capital into the city and make that in a sustainable way. I think that’s been the model and it’s the model that’s been very successful, very effective as far as I’m concerned.”
On the ownership’s intentions with the business and how it operates…
“So, when you invest in businesses there are many different ways when you look at the word. Obviously, this is what I do for a living. You can look at investing for today, meaning looking at profit today, I want a dividend today, I want to profit today. Or you can look at building value, the value of the enterprise you’re investing in and say: ‘Okay I don’t want to take profit out, but I want the value of that enterprise to grow’. It’s different models and all different investing ways, and there are many others. Sheikh Mansour, when he looks at this Club, he sees it as a long-term investment. Not just Sheikh Mansour. Sheikh Mansour of course and the shareholders who have invested in this Club over the years buy into the vision that we’re going to invest in something that’s going to grow in value over time. Of course, His Highness has no intention of selling this business, but over time, new shareholders come in at different value points that show how that value is really growing. So, this Club, when Sheikh Mansour first invested in it, the value was $100-120 million back in 2008. Then over the years we’ve had multiple stop points where the value went from $120 million to $1billion, the value of the Group became $1 billion. Then it became $2 billion, then it became $3 billion, then we had investors come in and actually invest in the Club at $3 billion. We continued to grow; we continued to grow the value of this business while always keeping the profits and the revenue in the business because that helps to keep growing this value that we’re creating. Then we went up to $5 billion and then more money came in, investors buying into this strategy, buying into this value creation and putting money into it. And again, Sheikh Mansour took a very important choice which was that the money stays in because we’re going to keep building this. And this went up from $5 billion to $6 billion, to $7 billion, to north of $8 billion dollars. If you’re going to sell all this today in the market, you wouldn’t sell it for less than $10 billion minimum. That’s value creation.”
On no intention to sell…
“There’s no intention to sell. There’s only intention to keep growing this because the view here is this will only grow and this is a beautiful business to own. It’s football and it’s entertainment. And in the world we’re in today, while the world changes and people’s attention goes to different things, sport stays. And football within sports is the pinnacle. And Manchester City and this Group within the football world is a pinnacle. And these sorts of jewels, you don’t sell.”
On keeping season ticket prices at the same level for three consecutive seasons…
“The fans are at the heart of the success of any club. The ticketing issue is an issue that is not easy because from one part we are investing and we are trying to keep investing and we have to keep that model sustainable. From another perspective, the fans are at the heart, and we have to be very sensitive to the ticketing price issue. And not putting them under distress in a stressed environment. So, creating that proper balance is what we have to achieve always. I think we are trying our best. I am committed to it, the Club is committed to it, and I think we have a very good line of communication with our fans and we hear them. Every club has to manage between the cost of inflation, the cost of operating a business to be competitive and the needs of its stakeholders, which are the fans. Every club deals with these same issues. They deal with them differently because the way they have to balance it is different between club to club. I’d like to think we do it our own way and in a way that is distinct and that takes the fans at heart.”
On partnerships and sponsors…
“We have tier one set of sponsors and partners part of the Club. Really, I think, world class and it’s a representation of where the Club is at the moment, where it’s going, that belief sponsors have in us as a Club. The success that we bring and the type of exposure that we can bring for them. I think we are good partners and you can see that reflected in some of these long-standing sponsors that we have had for many, many years, that see that value creation, that see how we add value to them and we are good partners to have. Look at the commitment PUMA’s giving right now. Ten-year partnerships don’t happen unless there is trust, there is confidence and there’s really a win-win relationship. So, I think we have established a strong partnership track record. We will continue to grow our revenue, and I think that’s part of the future evolution of the Club in the revenue we bring in through the investments we are making here in Manchester. The expansions that we keep investing in and developing in. The new partners that we keep bringing in. And of course, that spills over to success on the pitch because we keep investing that revenue in the squad, in the team and that brings success.”
On the New York stadium and how transformational it will be…
“New York is one of these handful of global cities that are in a different league. New York is New York. To be able to have a team like we have in New York City and then to build a stadium – so I think New York is an excellent example of great execution over many, many years. It is an excellent example of how we have taken our experience here in Manchester and taken it globally. And then it’s an excellent experience of how this Group is transforming over these years, where now we’re in the business of football, but we’re also in the business of infrastructure. Because owning these stadiums or building academies and building stadiums and operating stadiums, how many teams in the world use the terms that I have just used? They will have one stadium that they’ve either inherited, or they own and every once in a while, you will find a team that’s invested in building a stadium. Very few. And the New York stadium is going to be quite a development. So, by this time next year we will be playing in the stadium. The revenue, the economic commercial model is showing itself already with the amount of interest from sponsors, from partners. From investing $100 million many, many years ago to buy this franchise to now what will be worth north of a billion and a half. And that’s all value we’ve created through this strategy over the years.”
On the importance of fulfilling the promise to build a stadium in New York…
“Very important because you know, when I make a commitment, when we make a commitment, we deliver on it. And sometimes it takes longer, but we stay at it, we don’t quit, we’ll find a way and we keep at it. And with patience and perseverance we get to it at the end and yeah, I think with this one, that required a lot of patience and a hell of a lot of perseverance.”
On Troyes securing promotion back to Ligue 1…
“I think in Troyes, there are things that we look back [on] and we could have done better. All of us, rose our hand here in the Club and said, ‘okay, we didn’t fulfil a promise in the way we made it, and we have to rectify this’. And we focused on it. Everybody in the Group put a lot of energy into getting Troyes back on the right track. And I think today you see they’ve won their league and they’re back into Ligue 1.”
On the excitement around Bahia in Brazil…
“A lot of excitement, a lot of excitement. Brazilian football is back with a loud bang. It’s really… if you look at the last couple of years, how they’ve really, corporatised the league in a much better way. For us, investing in Bahia, similar story to what we’ve discussed in other places, putting a strategy in place, you know, establishing a good relationship with the fan base, investing in new training facilities, finding ways to invest in developing the stadium and taking a very long-term view because we see the value of this Club. This is a story that is at its early stages but it’s on the right track. We’re very committed to it, and I think this will be another big success story for the Group.”
On other performances in the Group…
“Overall, City Football Group continues to perform. I think it’s on strategy, on plan. You know, you have so many different parts of the Group. Any given year, you will have some teams that do very well, other teams not do as well. And it’s part of the game, it’s part of the business we’re in, which is the business of football, emotion and passion and a game at the end of the day. Girona, as an example, yeah, to go back to the second division was a big blow to everyone I’m sure associated with the Club there. We’re very saddened by that. But okay, that was yesterday. Now we’re not sad, we’re now focusing on, okay, what do we need to do to get Girona back to La Liga. And we’ll do it. Girona is a core part of the Group. We have a lot of plans for it because we have strong views of La Liga. We have strong views on Girona itself, the talent development in Girona and that region in Spain or Catalonia. The Academy project we’re developing over there, the stadium we’re going to be developing there, so we have, you know, those plans don’t change. The football we deal with, we’ll get them back. This summer, we’ll do what we need to do, and we’ll get this team back on track and they’ll be back in La Liga – just a matter of time.”
On Palermo…
“We have to get to Serie A, and we will do everything we can to support Palermo to go where it deserves to be – among the Serie A teams because that’s Palermo.”
On whether more expansion is planned…
“Listen, we have our hands full right now. A lot of, as you can see, a lot of investment, development we’re doing all around the world. I think for the time being, I think our focus is really just on the teams we have right now and these big projects that we discussed earlier because they require a lot of attention. Expansion, when the opportunity comes, will happen. We’re always going to be open minded about opportunity and growth. But I think for the time being, we’re very focused on these big developments and investments we’re making as we speak.”
On if there is any update on the Premier League ruling…
“Let me be as consistent as I’ve always been – until we have a ruling, I can’t say much. Once we have a ruling, believe me, Chris, we’re going to have a wonderful sit down together and I’ll say everything I’ve wanted to say for the last three years.”
About Manchester City Football Club:
Manchester City FC was initially founded in 1880 as St Mark’s West Gorton and officially became Manchester City FC in 1894. Situated on the wider Etihad Campus, the Club’s footprint includes the 53,000 capacity Etihad Stadium, the 7,000 capacity Joie Stadium and City Football Academy, a state-of-the-art performance, training and youth development facility home to the Club’s men’s, women’s and academy teams.
Ranked as the Most Valuable Football Club Brand in the Premier League by Brand Finance, Manchester City FC is currently developing a best-in-class fan experience and year-round entertainment and leisure destination at the Etihad Campus. The Club is committed to operating in a sustainable and socially responsible manner and ensures that equality, diversity and inclusion is embedded into its decision-making processes, culture and practices.
