The Man City Thread*******

This weekend’s Champions League final in Istanbul is the most uneven finale in the recent history of the competition.

On one side you have the richest football club in the world, accused of breaking financial rules by the Premier League, with a recorded revenue of €731m.

And their opponents, with a staggering differential of €423m less, is Inter Milan with commercial, match-day and broadcast earnings of €308.4m.

The most accurate measurement to assess the value of both clubs comes from the Deloitte Football Money League, which demonstrates the sheer difference in values.

Under Commercial Revenue, Manchester City’s income was €373m for 2022 against Inter Milan’s €87m, while in broadcast income, City earned €294m while Inter gained €177m.

Matchday earnings brought in €44m for Internationale against the Manchester side’s €64m.

In the area of transfer income and spending, another demonstration of power can be seen between both clubs.

For the last calendar year, City spent €176.4m on players while taking in €102.1m in sales, achieving a net transfer balance of -€74.3m.

With Inter Milan those numbers are almost reversed with €185.2m coming through transfer income, with an expenditure of €116m, resulting in a profit of €69.2m.

Values which aren’t included in the Deloitte report, like record transfer buys by both clubs, shows City leading the way again - €116m for Jack Grealish in 2021 against Inter’s €80m for Romelu Lukaku in 2019.

And finally, let’s look at club sponsorship – one of the key areas where Manchester City is being investigated by the Premier League.

City’s 10-year deal with Emirates is worth €464m, while Inter Milan have been without a headline commercial partner since April, after shirt sponsor DigitalBits failed to pay any of an agreed €25m sponsorship for the season.