Man City rating main victory over Premier League as sponsorship guidelines declared void
Manchester City have scored a major victory over the Premier League.
An independent tribunal ruled in October last year that three elements of the Associated Party Transactions (APT) rules were unlawful. City declared victory at the time as the Premier League announced it would that it would make tweaks to the rules.
City legal counsel Simon Cliff warned against making hasty amendments and urged the Premier League to wait until the full verdict had been delivered by the tribunal.
The tribunal, made up of three senior legal figures in Sir Nigel Teare, Lord Dyson and Christopher Vajda KC, held a two-day meeting last month to discuss if the rules as a whole were unlawful.
And they concluded the APT rules were “void and unenforceable”, according to the Daily Mail.
(Image: PA)
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As a result, the conclusion could allow Premier League clubs to seek compensation for any deals undervalued between December 2021 and November 2024 as a result of the APT rules.
The Premier League is now facing legal costs above £10million and questions over its fitness to regulate clubs.
The conclusion of the 18-page second partial final award, which was seen by The Times, says: “In the first partial final award it was declared that the APT rules and amended APT rules were unlawful in three respects.
(Image: PA)
“There now arises for decision the question whether those three respects can be severed from the remaining APT rules so that those remaining APT rules are valid and enforceable.
“The three respects in which the APT rules and amended APT rules were unlawful cannot be severed with the result that the APT rules as a whole are void and unenforceable.”
APT rules were introduced in 2021 to try and maintain competitiveness in the Premier League by preventing clubs from inflating deals with companies linked to their owners.
