Manchester City clap back at Premier League amidst legal battle as club accuses the league of misleading other clubs.
Manchester City has gone on to accuse the Premier League on grounds of misleading the rest of the clubs in terms of the tribunal verdict.
On Monday night, City additionally sent letters to the league, the other 19 clubs, and the league contesting the league’s assessment of the results. The four-time winners maintained that they now believed all associated party transaction (APT) regulations to be null and void.
“Regrettably, the summary is misleading and contains several inaccuracies,” the club’s general counsel Simon Cliff wrote in an email. “Of even greater concern, however, is the Premier League’s suggestion that new APT rules should be passed within the next 10 days.
“When the Premier League consulted on and proposed the original APT Rules in late 2021. We consequently pointed out that the process is rushed, ill-thought-out. That it would result in rules that were anti-competitive. The recent award has validated those concerns entirely.
“The tribunal has declared the APT rules to be unlawful. MCFC’s position is that this means that all of the APT rules are void, and have been since 2021.”
The verdict, accordingly to the Premier League, “rejected the majority of Manchester City’s challenges and upheld the need for the APT system as a whole,” making it the side that had prevailed in the procedure. The league announced that, after consulting with its shareholder clubs, it will “quickly and effectively” amend its rulebook.
The purpose of APT regulations is to guarantee that business transactions with organisations connected to a club’s owners are at fair market value. After the arbitration panel determined that the rules were invalid due to their exclusion of shareholder loans, City declared victory.
Cliff informed clubs it was “peculiar” that all things considered. The league had claimed in its summary that City were succesful in the majority of their challenge.
“While it is true that MCFC did not succeed with every point that it ran in its legal challenge. The club did not need to prove that the APT rules are unlawful for lots of different reasons,” Cliff wrote. “It is enough that they are unlawful for one reason. In the event, the tribunal found the APT rules are unlawful for three different sets of reasons.”