The chief executive of English football club Manchester City says they'll break even this season, refuting the idea their losses of 300 million dollars in the last two campaigns breached Financial Fair Play rules.
Since being bought by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan in 2008, the club have been transformed from a mid-table English Premier League outfit to one of Europe's richest.
City won the top-flight title in 2012, their first for more than 40 years, to emerge from the shadows of their illustrious neighbours Manchester United.
It came at a high cost though with the club spending over a billion dollars on transfers in the 5 years since, while the payroll rose 16 percent last season to almost 500 million dollars.
Chief executive ferran Soriano says they're working towards breaking even this season and aiming to be profitable within two campaigns.
New Financial Fair Play rules brought in by European football's governing body UEFA cap headline losses at 90 million dollars in the two seasons between 2011 and 2013, the first monitoring period.
Soriano says City's deficits were within those limits.
Clubs that do not comply could be excluded from the Champions League.
