Ferran Soriano became Manchester City's chief executive in 2012
Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has defended the club's decision to spend over £120m on new players at a time when many lower-league counterparts are facing a bleak financial future due to coronavirus.
City signed defenders Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake, plus winger Ferran Torres, during the transfer window.
Port Vale owner Carol Shanahan told BBC Radio 5 Live the £65m spent on Dias would "run League Two for a season".
Soriano said: "We have to take risks."
Speaking at the Leaders in Sport Conference, Soriano defended City's spending: "The team is the engine of our business. If we don't play good football, we have no business. We can't avoid that.
"Sometimes these things are taken out of context. You have to look at the net spend. We sold a player [Leroy Sane to Bayern Munich] for £49m and bought Torres for £23m.
"If you believe Covid is a period of time, we have to carry on with our business and we need to keep playing good football. If we need a central defender, we need a central defender."
'Development gap for 17 and 18-year-olds'
In his 30-minute question-and-answer session, conducted virtually, Soriano spoke about issues including big clubs developing young players.
"Look at the development of young players," he said. "We have a development gap for players aged between 17 and 18 in England where B teams are not allowed.
"So, they are taken by the German clubs, who sell them back to us for 10 times the price. This is bad. We need to find ways to make sure the talented English football players can develop here.
"We need to solve the economic equation so Football League clubs are sustainable because there is too much of difference between the Championship and Premier League."
On fans returning to stadiums, he said: "It is a fundamental problem, not only because of revenue but because football is a product designed to have fans in stadium.
"Safety is number one thing we care about but we believe modern stadiums have all the tools required to get fans in and respect social distancing. We hope this will happen."
He also said protecting players and reducing the number of games played is vital.
"This is a real problem," he said. "There are too many games for Premier League clubs and we need to find ways to cut this.
"Some games have to be played because they generate the fans and revenue that feeds the whole pyramid. We want them to be played. There are others that don't add value and put players at risk."
