Manchester City accuse Premier League of misleading clubs over tribunal verdict

Manchester City have accused the Premier League of “misleading” clubs over the legal case they fought over top-flight rules governing commercial deals.

City wrote to the other 19 clubs and the league on Monday night to challenge the league’s interpretation of the outcome, and the four-in-a-row champions insisted their position was that all the associated party transaction (APT) rules were now 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 pointed out that the process (which took several weeks) was rushed, ill-thought-out and 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 Premier League argued it was the party to have emerged successfully from the process because the ruling “upheld the need for the APT system as a whole and rejected the majority of Manchester City’s challenges”. The league said it planned to “quickly and effectively” adjust its rulebook in discussion with its shareholder clubs.

APT rules are designed to ensure that to ensure commercial deals with entities linked to a club’s owners are at fair market value. City declared victory after the arbitration panel found the rules to be unlawful because they excluded shareholder loans.

Cliff told clubs it was “peculiar” that the league had said in its summary that City were unsuccessful 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.”

The league is understood to have called a clubs meeting to discuss making changes to the rules. Cliff said this was not the time for a “kneejerk reaction” in revising the rules, which he warned could lead to further legal proceedings. He said there needed to be “careful reflection” on how to proceed.