Manchester City emerges victorious in legal dispute with Premier League regarding sponsorship regulations

In a landmark decision, Manchester City has emerged victorious in the legal dispute against the Premier League's Associated Party Transaction Rules. The league had previously blocked two of City's sponsorship deals, a move that was deemed unlawful by a tribunal. This case is entirely separate from the ongoing 115 charges brought forward by the Premier League against the club, which are currently being heard by an independent panel. The Associated Party Transaction (APT) case specifically delves into the fair value of deals with connected parties, ensuring that all agreements are conducted at a fair rate and are not inflated. Manchester City's successful challenge against the league's ruling has reaffirmed their commitment to conducting business with transparency and integrity, setting a precedent for fair dealings within the sports industry.

"Following today's publication of the Rule X Arbitral Tribunal Award, Manchester City Football Club thanks the distinguished members of the Arbitral Tribunal for their work and considerations and welcomes their findings," read the statement by the club on their website.

The Tribunal ruled that the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules have been found to be unlawful and the Premier League's decisions on two specific MCFC sponsorship transactions have been set aside. The Tribunal found that both the original APT rules and the current, (amended) APT Rules violate UK competition law and violate the requirements of procedural fairness.

"The Premier League was found to have abused its dominant position and the Tribunal has determined both that the rules are structurally unfair and that the Premier League was specifically unfair in how it applied those rules to the Club in practice. The tribunal also claimed that the Premier League had reached the decisions in a procedurally unfair manner," the ruling stated.

"The rules were found to be discriminatory in how they operate, because they deliberately excluded shareholder loans. As well as these general findings on legality, the Tribunal has set aside specific decisions of the Premier League to restate the fair market value of two transactions entered into by the Club," it added.

The Tribunal also ruled that there was an unreasonable delay in the Premier League's fair market value assessment of two of the Club's sponsorship transactions, and so the Premier League breached its own rules.

The Premier League has said it welcomes the tribunal's findings, "which endorsed the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of the APT system … (but did) identify a small number of discrete elements of the rules which do not, in their current form, comply with competition and public law requirements".

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"These elements can quickly and effectively be remedied by the League and clubs," quoted the Premier League as saying.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)