Manchester City have won a huge legal battle against the Premier League after rules relating to commercial deals between clubs and related companies were declared unlawful.
City are said to have had two major sponsorship deals blocked because of the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules, which were brought in following Newcastle United’s Saudi-backed takeover and amended in February this year.
The ruling could force the Premier League into dumping the APT rules completely, with City expected to seek damages from the organisation as a result.
City had reportedly seen a major deal with UAE-based airline Etihad, who have sponsored the club’s shirts since 2009, blocked last year.
It opens up the possibility for other clubs to also seek damages, should they believe the existing APT framework also prevented them from completing lucrative sponsorship deals.
A statement released by the Premier League champions read: “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.”
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