Man City dispute over associated party transaction rules ends as they settle with Premier League and accept rules.
Man City settle with Premier League and accept sponsorship rules are valid.
The Premier League and Manchester City have reached an agreement about regulations that restrict elite teams’ ability to enter into sponsorship agreements with businesses associated with their ownership.
Both sides have now backed off from the verge of the dispute over the so-called associated party transaction rules, which had been viewed as a possible challenge to the Premier League’s entire set of rules. City has agreed to acknowledge the validity of the APT rules as they currently stand.
“The Premier League and Manchester City FC have reached a settlement in relation to the arbitration commenced by the club earlier this year concerning the Premier League’s associated party transaction (APT) rules, and as a result have agreed to terminate the proceedings,” the parties said in a joint statement on Monday afternoon.
“This settlement brings an end to the dispute between the parties regarding the APT rules. As part of the settlement Manchester City accepts that the current APT rules are valid and binding. It has been agreed that neither the Premier League nor the club will be making any further comment about the matter.”
After an arbitration panel determined that some parts of the then-existing rules were discriminatory, City declared victory in the initial dispute over APT in October. The panel concluded that loans made by shareholders to their own club ought to have been covered by APT regulations. Additionally, there were issues with how clubs were informed about what would be “fair market value” in a particular transaction.
The Premier League claimed that any issues about APT had been settled and that its rules was appropriate after making changes to comply with the panel’s decision. However, City contested the league’s changes and started a fresh arbitration procedure this year. This second procedure has now been finished. However, both sides are still engaged in the drawn-out and confidential disciplinary procedure, where the team is facing over 130 counts of violating Premier League regulations.