Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has touted his side's ability to reach the top of the sport without extraordinary measures.
The Citizens, who are entirely funded by the United Arab Emirates, have often been the subject of financial scrutiny.
UEFA charged City with Financial Fair Play breaches, only to lose out in court.
The Premier League are now investigating the club for more than 100 breaches of their own financial rules dating back more than a decade.
Per The Mirror, Soriano said: It's about hard work - we haven't done anything that was out of the ordinary.
We now know that this year our revenues are going to be above 700 million. This is the British record - and we are probably No.1 in Europe and also the world.
This has happened over the last decade - and it's based on the football we play. We have a good football club, we play very good football - and we win.
"That helps us sell more merchandise. Our sales last season were 80 percent more than the previous season. We thought that was spectacular. But guess what? In the first few weeks ahead of the coming season, we are selling 80 percent more merchandise again. These are real numbers.
Four days after winning the Champions League, our sales were as high as what we usually sell in a month. This comes with winning and playing good football.
It's natural that more people want to watch our games, more people want to buy our merchandise, more companies want to sponsor us."