Manchester City have won their legal case against the Premier League over new rules on sponsorship deal.
In a significant victory for the Premier League champions in their battle with the league’s authorities over financial rules, a panel has ruled that regulations aimed at preventing clubs from inflating deals with companies linked to their owners breach the Competition Act – and that the Premier League was wrong to stop two recent deals involving the Citizens.
City, who face 130 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules in a separate case, took the division to court earlier this year. The case was lodged against rules brought in on Associated Party Transactions, which were created following Newcastle United’s Saudi-led takeover in 2021.
The rules have now been deemed unlawful, with City confirming victory in a club statement.
“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.”
