Manchester City have reportedly launched a new legal challenge against the Premier League for their sponsorship rules.
The Premier League launched the rules to prevent how much companies associated with clubs can feed money into them. The majority of the top-flight clubs voted in favour of the changes related to the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules in November.
An independent panel later concluded that some of the rules were deemed as unlawful. Now The Times report that City are requesting a new arbitration and it’s believed that Lord Barrister, who is leading their defence in a separate case relating to the 130 alleged breaches will oversee the case.
Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters informed clubs of the latest development in a letter to clubs on Thursday. It read: “On January 20, 2025, Manchester City FC began a further arbitration to challenge the APT rules,” he reportedly wrote, as per the Times.
“As you will see, the new challenge relates to the amendments to the APT rules that clubs approved at the 22 November 2024 shareholders’ meeting. Manchester City FC seeks a declaration that the amendments approved by clubs in November (and therefore the current APT rules in force) are unlawful and void.
“The Premier League remains strongly of the view that the amendments passed in November were lawful and the APT rules comply with all competition law requirements. We consider that the new arbitration must be resolved as soon as possible and, to that end, have agreed that the same tribunal should be appointed to hear the new case.
“The parties are currently corresponding in relation to further directions. The APT rules remain in full force and effect and clubs remain required to comply with all aspects of the system.”
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