Our football success has been achieved at considerable financial cost and we are taking action to deal with the implications

David Bernstein, chairman, Manchester City

The club said on Monday that it was planning to sell bonds worth £30.3m, backed by future ticket sales.

The bond issue, underwritten by Bear Stearns investment bank, could eventually raise as much as £44.3m.

The club announced the new financing deal as it admitted that its losses for the year to 31 May had widened to £13.9m from just £600,000 the previous year.

Wage costs

Manchester City chairman David Bernstein said the club's deteriorating financial position reflected a dip in revenues after it was relegated from the top-flight English Premier League at the end of the 2000/01 season.

Total revenues for the year were down by £4m at £38m, with a sharp fall in television broadcast fees accounting for much of the decrease.

The club's wage bill rose by nearly £6m to £21.8m as the club successfully fought its way back into the Premiership for the current season.

"Our football success has been achieved at considerable financial cost and we are taking action to deal with the implications," Mr Bernstein said.

Lucky escape

Manchester City's promotion back into the Premier League means that the club has sidestepped a serious cash crunch facing teams in the lower three divisions.

Those teams are set to lose most of their vital television cash because of the collapse earlier this year of broadcaster ITV Digital.

ITV Digital had paid £315m for the exclusive right to broadcast games in the lower three divisions over a three-year period.

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB has picked up the remaining two years of the contract, but has paid only a fraction of the original price.