The Manchester clubs meet for the first time in the FA Cup final with City threatening to eclipse United on and off the pitch
t will be a mighty convoy, perhaps not visible from space but certainly from the verges of the M6. A minimum of 60 coaches, travelling south on Saturday morning, will transport supporters of Manchester’s two prestigious football clubs to Wembley Stadium. There, the men’s sides will contest a historic encounter, competing together in anThat there is greater anticipation than usual for the traditional domestic showpiece is not just down to its unique matchup.
Ferguson once spoke of City, after the deal that saw Abu Dhabi’s sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan take control of the club, as United’s “noisy neighbours”. In the intervening years the volume has been turned up. Should City complete the treble, United’s reputation as the pre-eminent club of the Premier League era would be under serious threat.
During his time as Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson described Manchester City as ‘noisy neighbours’.City’s dominance on the field is real, but currently hedged with caveats. The club has been served with 115 charges by the Premier League, accused of failing to fully disclose the nature of the club’s finances, the money they paid to players and staff, and failing to comply with an investigation into these irregularities.
These debates speak to another area of rivalry between City and United, the one that goes on off the pitch. Both clubs are major players in a global game that continues to grow in financial value. According to all publicly available assessments City are the richest club in the world, another title that used to belong to United. City’s annual report for 2021-22 showed record revenues of £613m.
According to Andrea Sartori, a former global head of sports at KPMG and founder of the advisory company Football Benchmark, there is a “very strong correlation” between on- and off-field success.
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