Man City secure partial legal win over Premier League on APT rules
Manchester City have claimed a partial victory in an ongoing legal battle between the Etihad outfit and the Premier League over commercial rules governing clubs.
An independent panel on Monday, ruled that the Premier League’s rules regarding associated party transactions (APT) broke British competition law in two specific ways, which they deemed unlawful as the clubs did not have a say on the sort of data the league were looking into.
APTs were originally formulated to curtail any form of illegal activities surrounding the value of sponsorship deals the club can strike with companies linked to its owners.
The case involves two sponsorship deals that City, who are owned by the famous Abu Dhabi City Football Group, were not allowed to complete in 2023 with First Abu Dhabi Bank and Etihad Aviation group.
However, Monday’s ruling by the independent tribunal, says the Premier League’s move against the two transactions were “reached in a procedurally unfair manner” and must be overturned.
They also found the Premier League, which itself admitted was understaffed at the time, took several months too long to reach its decision in both cases.
Despite this partial win for City, who are in still in for a long battle with the league body, the Premier League revealed that the tribunal rejected the majority of the club’s challenges and “endorsed the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of the APT system”.
City challenged 25 regulations in the Premier League rule book regarding APT, and its decision to reject the two sponsorship deals.
The club said in a statement claimed that they had successfully proven that the Premier League was found, among other things, to have abused its dominant position with its approach and rules.
“The Tribunal has determined both that the rules are structurally unfair and that the Premier League was specifically unfair in how it applied those rules to the Club in practice,” the statement read.
“The rules were found to be discriminatory in how they operate because they deliberately excluded shareholder loans,” it added.
Club statement
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 7, 2024
However, in response to the claim’s made by the defending champions, the Premier League said the majority of City’s challenges had been rejected.
“Moreover, the Tribunal found that the rules are necessary in order for the League’s financial controls to be effective,” it added in a statement.
