On the tenth anniversary of his purchasing the club, Manchester City Owner Sheikh Mansour wrote a letter to the club’s supporter base. The letter was distributed as a press release to the media this morning, and appears in the match day program as City hosts Fulham on Saturday.
Mansour, who has a reported estimated net worth of $4.9 billion, is the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. He has utilized his inherited family wealth to establish himself as an extremely successful business man, and completely transform Manchester City football club.
He’s a primary example of the big big big money that has taken over ownership of several clubs in world football over the past couple of decades. He took a club that was meddling in mid table mediocrity and built them into one of the most powerful clubs in the world.
A decade before Sheikh Mansour purchased the club, Man City was relegated to the third tier of English football. A decade after Mansour took ownership, the club is coming off a season which saw the team set Premier League records for points, goals, goal differential and league title winning margin.
During his decade in charge they have won three league titles, three league cups and a FA Cup. Just this week, City became only the second club in English history to make £500 million in revenue in a given fiscal year.
In the letter, Mansour lauded the club’s financial success off the pitch:
Off the field every metric indicates that acquiring City was a very good business decision.In 2015, the investment led by China Media Capital saw City Football Group valued at US$3bn, and this year, at Manchester City we have broken through the £500M revenue barrier and made a profit for the fourth consecutive year.
He also outlined his ambitions for the next decade. Despite all that MCFC has accomplished, both on and off the pitch during his regime, Sheikh Mansour remains humble. He maintains that the club is only “halfway up our Everest” and that they have much more to win.
He continued:
So what do the next ten years hold? I know you all remain ambitious and so do I. It feels that we are only half way up our Everest. There is much more to do and there is much more to win. That is why you will continue to see us strive to recruit the very best talent into this club and its sister organisations in all functions and at all levels.
Khaldoon and I know that we will not get everything right all the time. As we continue on this journey I would ask you to please always bear with us and please be assured that, even when we stumble, we will try to remain true to our values and to make you proud of what we do and how we do it on your behalf.
The rest of the Premier League is certainly on notice!
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Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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