Is that City? I thought it was United and Newcastle as reported recently by the Financial Times? I can't post the link but if you search YouTube for "Following the money behind premier league sponsors - Financial Times" it will come up. It's from last month.
I am not saying City are clean with regards to sponsors, I am sure there are some dodgy ones, just that it is not unique to City.
Someone asked me about the revenue earlier and how it is so high, I think this has been well answered already - most of it is prize money and TV revenue. Also shirt sales did go through the roof when Haaland joined. Deloitte aren't a small outfit, they are arguably the foremost marketing consultancy in the world, so I trust their review.
Deloitte includes plenty of caveats so as not to put the full weight of their reputation behind this. They themselves say this in the report: "The publication contains a variety of information derived from publicly available, or other direct, sources other than financial statements.
We have not performed any verification work or audited any of the information contained in the financial statements or other sources in respect of each club for the purpose of this publication. Some charts may not sum due to rounding."
Also, most of the money is not from prize money or TV revenue. Deloitte categorizes the sources of revenue as follows: "
Matchday revenue is largely derived from gate receipts (including ticket and corporate hospitality sales).
Broadcast revenue includes revenue from distributions from participation in domestic leagues, cups and UEFA club competitions.
Commercial revenue includes sponsorship, merchandising and revenue from other commercial operations. For a more detailed analysis of the comparability of revenue generation between clubs, it would be necessary to obtain information not otherwise publicly available."
51% of City's revenue in the latest reporting period comes from commercial revenue, meaning the sponsorships and merchandizing. City had the 3rd highest such revenue in the world for the latest reporting period, behind PSG and Bayern, and the highest in the Premier League. I don't think any real growth from Haaland shirt sales would be included in the numbers that have been reported in the Deloitte Football Money League yet, as that year has not yet been reported. By way of comparison to other premier league clubs, Liverpool had 39%, United had 45%, Chelsea had 37%, Tottenham had 41% and Arsenal had 38% of revenue derived from commercial revenue. The two sides that outstripped City in commercial revenue, PSG and Bayern, both had 58% of revenue derived from commercial revenue. So on a percentage basis, City are higher than Premier League rivals in terms of commercial revenue. In terms of match day revenue they are the lowest of the Big 6, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of their total revenue.