[MONEY MATTERS] Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyanur's Abu Dhabi United Group pumped $630 million into Manchester City since buying the EPL club in August 2008. City's losses tripled to almost $150 million during its first season under its ownership, but no worries here. It wrote off all its debts, converting all its loans into equity in the club.

Most telling was its operating picture. Expenses rose by almost 150 percent to $192 million to pay for the massive player salaries, but income rose by just 6 percent to $140 million.

Sheikh Mansour's decision to forgive the debt follows a similar move by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to wipe out his debts by converting them to equity in order to comply with UEFA debt controls, which could see clubs banned from the Champions League after 2012 unless they break even on soccer-related business.

Amazingly, City's losses don't reflect last summer's spending spree that saw another $192 million spent on new players, most notably Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure.