Khaldoon defends City's spending

// A bit of a hack but it works// The article snippet is wrapped onto a second line, even when #article-sub is emptyif( $("div#article-sub").children().length == 0 ) {$("div#article-sub").remove();} Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak has rubbished claims that the club's lavish spending is endangering football. Big-spending City have laid out over £100million in the transfer market this season and Khaldoon insists they have spent vast amounts of money to increase competition at the highest levels.City have come in for criticism from the likes of Uefa president Michel Platini over their spending having a distorting effect on the transfer market and Europe's footballing governing body are thought to be looking into ways to implement rule changes that require clubs to become self-sufficient in the near future.Khaldoon has defended City's massive outlay on players since the takeover by the Abu Dhabi group a year ago and says their spending will not put the club into debt."I could accept the argument if we were artificially building up the club through debt," Khaldoon told The Guardian."That produces a destructive end result; we have seen that happen. But in our case, the club will be in the healthiest position because there is no debt. We have funded it through equity [permanent investment], including the signing of the players.Competition"I believe what we are doing is a fair way to inject competition into football, without debt."Uefa have moved to try and curtail the big spending of City and Real Madrid by announcing "financial fair-play measures" which will require clubs to fund all activities through television income, ticket sales and commercial activities by 2012 if they wish to take part in European competitions.But Khaldoon believes Uefa's stance would lead to a monopoly of the same clubs taking part in European competition every season."The argument that this is unhealthy suggests that the big clubs, which make the most money, must remain the big clubs, that the status quo must remain," added Khaldoon."Is Mr Platini saying that only Real Madrid and Barcelona have the right to be competitive in La Liga?"I appreciate the argument about having so much money."The way I answer it is: Yes, this is a club, but it is a business too, and in business, you are there to compete. And we are striving to build the club the right way, with respect for its heritage, and the fans."

Source: SKY_Sports