Manchester City has launched a new legal challenge for the rules of the Premier League for sponsor offers – in a further escalation of the war between the competition and its champions.
Mail Sport understands that in the latest BOM development lawyers for the club have informed the competition that they will look for an arbitration for changes in the rules of the Associated Party Transaction (APT) that have already been in the center of a long-term legal fight.
City scored a victory over the competition when an arbitration panel found elements of rules for deals with parties linked to clubs were 'illegal'.
However, the Premier League subsequently made a number of changes, which were subsequently voted by a majority of his clubs.
At the time, city adviser Simon Cliff The prospect of further legal steps as new regulations in a wild letter to clubs are 'hurried' – and his employers have now implemented that threat.
For a number of reasons, the original panel had found problems with the rules, not least because they had no loans from shareholders, from parties with an interest in clubs such as owners, to the same fair market valuations as commercial deals.
Some rivals from City, in particular Arsenal and Liverpool, benefited considerably from such loans. The new rules say that the existing loan from the shareholders will effectively be set on one side and will not be subject to such ratings, which means that those involved escape from retrospective reimbursements that must pay millions.
City, whose action is again led by Lord Pannick KC, says that this means that the new rules remain discriminatory and unfair.
They also say that the fact that clubs can continue to benefit from shareholders' loans with only the interest rate that are subject to a fair market value -assessment and can obtain the full value of the loan before such an assessment has taken place is also unjust.
The new rules will still remain present while the legal challenge is rumbling. Mail Sport is not yet set for a hearing.
In what a complex and messy situation is, both City and the Premier League are waiting for further clarification of the original Tribunal panel about whether the entire ATP system should have been declared void.
The changes were voted on 16-4 in November. City was supported by Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United.
Prior to the vote, Villa had written to clubs to warn them that it was 'abundantly clear that every vote (if assumed) will lead to immediate further lawsuits by Manchester City'.
City had initially launched a legal challenge in June, after the Premier League had rejected a broad New Deal with the airline Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, of which they ruled it was not the real market value.
The last law will be discussed on what is expected to be a Feisty Premier League shareholders' meeting on Thursday. Chief Executive Richard Masters wrote this week to clubs to inform them about the new challenge of City.
“The Premier League remains strong of the opinion that the amendments adopted in November were legal and the APT rules meet all the requirements of competition law,” Masters added.
'We believe that the new arbitration should be resolved as quickly as possible and that it has been agreed that the same tribunal must be appointed to hear the new case. The parties are currently corresponding to further instructions. '
An opinion about the most important hearing on the alleged 115 infringements of the Premier League expenditure rules of the city remains excellent.
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