Fed up with the piss taking of recent years a number of shareholders asked that the meeting was held behind closed doors.
‘MANCHESTER CITY are still counting the cost of last season's Championship-winning campaign.
The Blues reported an operating loss of £5.9m and an overall loss nearing £14m to their shareholders on Friday.
For the first time in many years, the assembly took place out of the gaze of the media after some shareholders asked that the AGM be closed as per the club's rules. The move sparked rumours that the board was on collision course with stake-holding fans, but M.E.N. Sport understands that Mr Bernstein's address headed off any possibility of general unrest.’
Bernstein said:"In respect of the £30 million, I don't like the word gamble at all. It is not a gamble. We are in a very serious business. We are in a business with a degree of risk attaching to it. We are in a business unfortunately where there is a lot of debt involved. At the moment with the football industry as difficult as it is, you cannot raise equity."
"The ideal route would have been to raise a large amount of equity money as one of its main instigators - that is the safe way of doing it. Unfortunately, that is impossible. Our choice was very simple - either we cut our cloth and take the risk that involves, which would probably have meant not getting promoted last year, or to do what we did. The deal we are doing, which really removes a lot of short-term debt and replaces it with long term, pretty cheap debt, enables us to structure our affairs properly."
Meanwhile City announced that in releasing Laurent Charvet they paid him £1million just o go away.
‘MANCHESTER City have cut their losses and agreed a staggering £1m pay-off for misfit Laurent Charvet. The Blues board has agreed to end the contract of the 29-year-old French wingback who has not played in the first team this season. The shock decision to release the player bought by previous boss Joe Royle for £1m has been made because the Blues have not been able to thrash out a deal to sell him. His high salary was an obstacle for clubs at home and abroad - but now Charvet as a free agent can negotiate his next move.
Charvet’s cost to City works out at £145k per match better than Beckham.