Manchester City, amid the Trial of the Century, have accused the Premier League of distorting the division’s rules and regulations in favour of four fellow top flight clubs, including Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, according to a new report from The Times.
As things stand, a decision on the club’s 130 charges (which is expected soon) is yet to be delivered as the exhaustive wait for a verdict continues into the latter stages of the 2024/25 campaign. The case has now been open for north of two years.
In the latest development, the four-in-a-row Premier League champions launched an attack on league chiefs last month, in a statement submitted to an independent tribunal, as they claimed there were attempts to amend sponsorship rules.
According to The Times’ well-collated report on the matter, Pep Guardiola’s side have insisted that not only Arsenal – but the Gunners alongside all of Brighton & Hove Albion, Everton and Leicester City – have been given an unfair advantage.
They suggested that shareholder loans – in an event when the owners lend clubs money, sometimes worth hundreds of millions of pounds – from the owners of the aforementioned quartet have not been treated the same as other Associated Party Transactions (APTs).
For reference: APTs include sponsorship deals with companies which are linked to club owners – and last year, the Citizens won their legal battle against the Premier League APT rules after claiming they had been victims of ‘discrimination’.
That’s because the rules insist that shareholder loans are not required to be subject to the same ‘fair market value’ (FMV) test as commercial deals. However, the amended rules – from Manchester City’s legal victory – attempt to alleviate said issue.
What the rules now do is allow all 20 clubs in England’s top division that have benefitted from shareholder loans to see them converted into equity during a ‘grace period’ – this year’s allotted stretch of time ended in January.
The tribunal, consisting of Sir Nigel Teare, Lord Dyson and Cristopher Vajda KC, concluded those rules were ‘void and unenforceable’. As a result, the club claim that clubs should need to revert to thepre-2021 system when there were less rigorous rules on deals with ‘related parties’.
Now, Manchester City are reportedly under the assumption that the tweaked regulations continue to ‘discriminate’ against them, all while boosting the financial health of their rivals – and to build their case, the club have delved into their accounts.
Part of the claim highlighted the fact that Arsenal had benefitted from £259 million (in 2022/23) by virtue of shareholder loans, while Brighton banked £406.5 million in 2021/22, Everton £450 million in 2022/23 and relegation-doomed Leicester £265 million in 2021/22.
