Article Published 12 Jul 2011Eyebrows were certainly raised by the size of the Etihad sponsorship deal with Manchester City. Etihad, who are yet to report a profit and have a similar sized fleet to UK-based Flybe, have reportedly paid City around £400m in a 10 year deal which will extend the existing shirt-sponsorship
deal and re-brand City's stadium complex as "The Etihad Campus".  Not all of the Etihad funds will be used to boost City's coffers for the purposes of FFP - a reported £100m has been earmarked for an extensive development programme which provide a hotel, call centre, training pitches and a state-of-the art Academy set-up.  Although any expenditure on the youth-team set-up and the the stadium infrastructure is exempt from FFP calculations, the eventual financial benefits of such an investment can beused to offset the club's wage-spend.