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Yet more embarrassment for Richard Masters and the rest of the Premier League hierarchy.
As the fallout from the recent independent tribunal ruling continues.
When the independent tribunal ruling was made this month regarding the Manchester City case on Associated Party Transactions, Richard Masters and the Premier League bizarrely claimed it was proof they had won the case.
They insisted it was only minor details they had fallen short on and that this would be swiftly remedied, as they said they just needed to tweak the rules they had in place, then get the 20 Premier League clubs to meet up in the very near future and rubber stamp those ‘easy’ minor fixes.
Manchester City had a very different opinion on the tribunal’s ruling…
They told all of the other 19 Premier League clubs, that the Premier League had misled them over the lengthy published verdict, the Manchester City general legal counsel, Simon Cliff, sending a letter to the 19 other clubs, saying that the top-flight’s statement and summary of legal dispute over Associated Party Transaction rules was inaccurate.
That Premier League statement was signed off by Richard Masters and Manchester City accused the Premier League of misleading clubs with inaccuracies in its verdict on the legal dispute over the rules governing commercial deals between clubs and related companies.
Now Richard Masters and the Premier League have been forced into the humiliating position of cancelling all of those hastily arranged meetings that were meant to swiftly help put a line under this matter.
The Times revealing this in an exclusive today (see below).
What Richard Masters and the Premier League do not, will be very interesting.
Will they and the Premier League clubs collectively, still believe that only minor tweaks are needed with the current rules, or will they accept that a major overhaul is needed?
The Times report – 15 October 2024:
‘The Premier League’s emergency meeting with clubs this week to discuss the legal dispute with Manchester City over sponsorship rules has been shelved after two key preliminary meetings were postponed.
League officials were hoping for a swift resolution after a tribunal concluded that key elements of the rules governing commercial deals between clubs and related companies were “unlawful”.
But on Monday night, clubs were informed that the planned meetings with the league’s legal advisory group and the financial controls advisory group, which were due to take place on Tuesday, have now been cancelled.
Those key discussions were essential before Thursday’s emergency meeting in London and clubs have now been told there has been a postponement of that gathering too.
In what amounted to a clear change of tone, the Premier League chief executive Richard Masters wrote to clubs on Friday evening warning that there could be delays to a process that he initially said could be completed quickly.
Masters said the league would be taking “the necessary time to develop our proposals and the associated draft rule amendments” for Associated Party Transactions (APT) in the wake of the City’s legal challenge.
Only days earlier Masters had claimed in an email that the league could continue to operate its rules with changes that “can quickly and effectively be remedied by the League and clubs”.
But City responded by warning against a “knee-jerk reaction” that “would be likely to lead to further legal proceedings with further legal costs” in the wake of the arbitration hearing between City and the league that took place in June.
City’s general counsel, Simon Cliff, also accused the Premier League of “misleading” clubs with “inaccuracies” in its summary of a tribunal that found elements of the rules for APTs were “unlawful”, in particular in relation to the interest-free shareholder loans that many clubs have and at present sit outside the rules.’

 
