According to the latest report, Manchester City has emerged victorious in their legal battle against the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules that are enforced by the Premier League.
In June of the previous year, City initiated legal action against the Premier League in regard to the APT rules that are now previously in effect.
According to the rules, the Premier League was required to conduct an evaluation of any commercial transactions that involved clubs in order to determine whether or not they were of “fair market value.”
City, on the other hand, asserted that they had been subjected to “discrimination” regarding the rules, and they referred to them as a “tyranny of the majority.”
Within the month of October, a panel of independent arbitrators came to the conclusion that the rules were “unlawful.”
It was reported that the legal team representing City had been successful in seven of their most important arguments; however, the panel did not agree with’many’ of their claims. According to reports, the only thing that was required of them was to demonstrate that the rules were illegal for one of their arguments.
In a statement, the Premier League announced that the tribunal had reached the conclusion that “the Rules are necessary in order for the League’s financial controls to be effective.”
In addition, it was stated that the tribunal had “identified a small number of discrete elements of the Rules which do not, in their current form, comply with competition and public law requirements.” Furthermore, it was stated that the tribunal would be proposing the necessary amendments to the regulations at the appropriate time.
The amendments were approved by a vote of 16-4 the following month among the top flight clubs, with City being one of the clubs that voted against them.
Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League, stated that City were “seeking a declaration that the amendments approved by clubs in November (and therefore the current APT rules in force) are unlawful and void.” This was the second legal action that the reigning champions took against the Premier League in January, and it was in response to the amendments.
According to Mike Keegan of the Daily Mail, an independent panel has now reached a final verdict on the legal action surrounding the previous APT regulations. The panel has decided that the regulations were unlawful “in their entirety.”
It is asserted that any deals that were rejected or reduced in value under the system, which was in effect between December 2021 and November 2024, could be subject to “hefty compensation claims” in the event that a club “believes its competitive performance was harmed by a decision made under the previous APT system.” This possibility is said to have the potential to throw the league “into chaos.”
There is no connection between the verdict and the most recent legal challenge that City has lodged against the amended rules that were approved by clubs; this challenge has not yet been given its own verdict.
It is also unrelated to the 115 or more alleged violations of financial regulations that City has committed against the Premier League and UEFA.
As reported by the Daily Mail, the following is a statement that was included in the final award ruling. This statement makes reference to the amended rules, despite the fact that a verdict has not yet been reached in the case: According to the First Partial Final Award, it was determined that the APT Rules and the Amended APT Rules were unlawful in three different ways.
“At this point, the question that needs to be decided is whether or not those three aspects can be separated from the remaining APT Rules in order to make those remaining APT Rules valid and enforceable.
“The three respects in which the APT Rules and Amended APT Rules were unlawful cannot be severed with the result that the APT Rules as a whole are void and unenforceable.”
Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League, is said to have told clubs this afternoon that “the previous APT rules are no longer in place, and new rules were voted into force.” The Premier League has not yet made an official statement regarding the verdict.
“The league has previously told clubs that this decision was about the legal status of previous APT rules and would not impact the operation of new rules.”
