English Premier League football club Manchester City has reported massive annual losses of £92.6m. It is the second largest annual loss in English football history after Chelsea recorded losses of £140m in 2005.
The figures emphasise the vast amounts of money invested by Sheikh Mansour since he bought the club from Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2008.
As the figures run to May 31 2009, they do not take into account last summer's transfer dealings. But the results do include the previous year, when City smashed the British transfer record to bring Brazilian superstar Robinho to the club for £32.5m.
Another Brazilian, Jo, also arrived - although he has since joined Everton on loan - while Shay Given and Craig Bellamy were among a clutch of top-name players who joined 12 months ago.
Since then, manager Mark Hughes has lost his job and been replaced by Roberto Mancini.
City's chief financial and administration officer Graham Wallace said: 'The financial results reflect a period of rapid change at the club, the result of long-term planning and investment by the Board and our owners, to create a sustainable business in the future. We have always said that this transformation will take a number of years and these figures reflect that.'
On a normal business level, there have been areas of growth. Turnover increased by 6% to £87m, attendances rose to 42,890 from an average of 42,081 in the previous season, with ticketing revenues ahead by £1.8m, mainly as a result of an extended UEFA Cup run. Television revenues rose by 12% to £48.3m, also as a result of the UEFA Cup performance.
While City's playing squad is the obvious example of money being poured in from Abu Dhabi, there have been other, less noticeable costs. Hughes' demands to substantially improve the Carrington training ground were met. There were additional infrastructure costs, website and technology applications and staffing levels also went up.
Just as Roman Abramovich has done at Chelsea, Sheikh Mansour has turned the £304.9m shareholder loans he made to City into equity. He has also purchased further shares to a value of £89.6m in a what is termed as a 'show of commitment' to City.
