Manchester City acknowledged the arbitration panel’s ruling in their legal dispute against the Premier League’s purchase regulations.
City filed a lawsuit earlier this year, claiming the associated party transaction (APT) rules were anti-competitive.
The purpose of the APT regulations is to guarantee equitable business dealings with organisations connected to a club’s owners.
In a statement, City said that the tribunal had ruled the APT regulations to be “unlawful”.
“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,” a Manchester City statement read.
City provided more details about the panel’s conclusions, stating that: “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.”
“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.”
A “limited number of amendments” to the APT guidelines set earlier this year will be required, according to the Premier League, which also stated that the panel found in favour of City in “two respects only” – that shareholder loans should not be exempt from APT controls.
This case is not related to the one over purported violations of financial fair play.
The league reported City to an independent panel in February 2023 for alleged violations of premier league finance regulations. In addition to 35 more charges of not cooperating with a Premier League investigation, the club is accused of 80 financial rule violations between 2009 and 2018. All charges are vehemently denied by the club.
