Man City confirm major WIN in Premier League legal battle

Cameron Smith

7 Oct 2024 08:55 CDT
3 min read

Manchester City have confirmed a major win in their legal battle against the Premier League regarding Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules.

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Pep Guardiola’s side have been charged with 115 breaches of the English top flight’s spending rules and they are currently locked in a legal battle with the Premier League.

However, they also took the Premier League to court to challenge the APT rules, which relate to commercial deals between clubs and were introduced following Saudi Arabia’s takeover of Newcastle United.

City have officially won the APT case and will now seek damages from the Premier League for lost income since the new rules were introduced.

Furthermore, City’s victory will impact how Premier League clubs are able to secure sponsorship deals.

What have Man City said?

An official statement on Man City’s club website read: “Following today’s publication of the Rule X Arbitral Tribunal Award, Manchester City Football Club thanks the distinguished members of the Arbitral Tribunal for their work and considerations and welcomes their findings.

“The Club has succeeded with its claim: the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules have been found to be unlawful and the Premier League’s decisions on two specific MCFC sponsorship transactions have been set aside

“The Tribunal found that both the original APT rules and the current, (amended) APT Rules violate UK competition law and violate the requirements of procedural fairness.

“The Premier League was found to have abused its dominant position.

“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 rules were found to be discriminatory in how they operate, because they deliberately excluded shareholder loans.

“As well as these general findings on legality, the Tribunal has set aside specific decisions of the Premier League to restate the fair market value of two transactions entered into by the Club.

“The tribunal held that the Premier League had reached the decisions in a procedurally unfair manner.

“The Tribunal also ruled that there was an unreasonable delay in the Premier League’s fair market value assessment of two of the Club’s sponsorship transactions, and so the Premier League breached its own rules.”