One journalist has claimed that anyone declaring the APT judgement a ‘victory’ for Man City are likely “juvenile with extremely limited intellectual capacity”.
The Premier League insisted on Monday that the “majority” of the Citizens’ legal challenge to its rules on commercial deals has failed as the champions declared victory in the case.
Man City launched a legal action against the league’s associated party transaction (APT) rules earlier this year on the grounds they were anti-competitive.
City issued a statement on Monday afternoon announcing the rules had been found to be unlawful by an arbitration panel and that the league had abused a dominant position. The club say they can now seek damages arising from the case.
However, the Premier League said there were just two findings in City’s favour on the rules and that Man City were “unsuccessful in the majority of (their) challenge”.
Crucially, the league said the tribunal had determined the APT rules were necessary and pursued a legitimate objective.
The APT rules are designed to ensure commercial deals with entities linked to a club’s owners are done for fair market value.
A judgment determining all APT rules as unlawful would have had huge ramifications for competition within the Premier League and made it easier for clubs with the wealthiest owners to strike deals linked to their ownership, and in the process benefit from higher revenues, strengthening their position in regard to the league’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).
However, the Premier League’s position is that while the panel ruling will require some amendments to the rules, it does not call for them to be ripped up, which would in effect give clubs free rein over commercial deals.
Both parties released the 175-page judgment on Monday afternoon, but came to very different conclusions about what it meant.
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The panel did find it was anti-competitive to exclude shareholder loans from APT rules and also called for changes to the rules which were adopted earlier this year to be amended.
However, the Premier League said the tribunal had supported the legitimacy of the rules, and said it had found them essential to make the profitability and sustainability regulations (PSR) effective.
And, after studying the judgement properly, journalist Rob Draper insists it seems wide of the mark to suggest it is a ‘victory’ for Man City or the Premier League.
Draper wrote on X: “The more you read of the Man City/APT judgement, the more it seems to me you would have to be a juvenile with extremely limited intellectual + analytical capacity to declare this a ‘victory’ for Man City
“But fair play to Man City media team. They are the real winners today!
“TBF it is a victory in that when a decision went against me playing football as a kid, I stomped off home saying ‘It’s my ball and now no one can play!!’ If that’s their ultimate goal, I would agree it is a decisive victory
“To clarify, it’s not ‘victory for PL’ either It’s most a complex legal judgement with nuance + some wins for both sides It just isn’t a game of football with a decisive winner But you know, headlines don’t work like that!”
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