Man City legal win could force immediate rewriting of Premier League rules



Man City and the Premier League remain at loggerheads, with the matter of the Associated Party Transaction (APT) Rules as well as the outstanding 115 charges against the club to both be dealt with during the course of the current season.

It’s a most unsavoury situation when you have the serial winners of the English top-flight taking the governing body to task, but that’s exactly the situation as it stands at the moment.

Whether City’s challenge to the Premier League over what they consider to be anti-competitive APT rules was in response to the 115 charges being handed down is a moot point.

Man City challenge could bring about immediate Premier League change

What it could do, however, is force an immediate rewriting of those rules should City emerge successfully from the court ruling.

In turn, that could have a marked effect on Financial Fair Play.

“If City were wholly successful, you would think the Premier League rules would have to be amended immediately, such that those sections were deleted pending the replacement of them by the Premier League at their next meeting,” football finance expert and former Man City financial advisor, Stefan Borson, told Football Insider.

Man City display the five trophies they won in 2023 including one for the Premier League title

“We don’t know whether we will even get details of what the judgement might be. The way that the rules are framed are that there would be no public release of the decision itself. We may only know on the basis of either leaks or from the rules changing.

“But really the way that it will work in terms of the Premier League voting would probably only be if City were successful in some way, at which point those rules around associated party transactions would need to go back to the Premier League clubs for redrafting in light of the decision that was made.

“Depending on what the decision says and the limits that it endorses of the Premier League’s rights around associated party transactions, then it would probably be a case of back to the drawing board.

“Then they would try and come up with something that did work and was lawful.”


 

A City win would certainly set a precedent, and not a particularly palatable one, as it could encourage other Premier League clubs in future to challenge the status quo over any number of issues.

For now, the league and all of its member clubs will wait with interest to understand what the impact, if any, will be for them in the immediate future.