Man City receive final expert verdict after Premier League ruling as Arsenal stance clear

Latest Arsenal news with Premier League title rivals Manchester City told the final ruling of one of their cases against the Premier League

Manchester City have been sent a clear verdict following the Premier League's final outcome on their complaint surrounding the current associated party transaction (APT) rules. The reigning champions had brought forward their grievances earlier this year which saw an unprecedented victory secured with the rules deemed unlawful.

The hearing was held over a two-week period in June with the answer determining City were unfairly blocked from agreeing two huge sponsorship deals. It must be mentioned this outcome is entirely separate to the ongoing hearing between the two parties over alleged financial breaches.

With a significant amount of confusion surrounding what the outcome actually means, Christopher Allen, Partner at the law firm Memery Crystal and a football regulation expert has explained in layman's terms how the Premier League, Manchester City and other clubs, including Arsenal, may be feeling.

“Whilst we have not had sight of the full judgement, based on the reported findings of the Tribunal, it is a little difficult to reconcile both parties claiming some form of victory in this matter," he said. "In footballing terms, it feels very much like a Manchester City win, with the Premier League scoring a consolation goal.

"I say consolation goal as the Tribunal did not appear to find that the principle of having rules around associated party transactions (APT) in and of itself to be unlawful. In other words, the aim and the principle of regulating APT is fine. The issue for the Premier League is that both of its attempts to date to bring in rules on the subject have been found to be unlawful.

"The unlawful nature of the current APT rules represents two problems. First, with Manchester City having now taken the seismic step of being the first club to bring a claim against the Premier League, it could open the door for other clubs who might have had transactions vetoed by the Premier League as part of the old APT rules to seek redress."

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"Second, and a point which is being widely reported from the Tribunal judgement, is that interest free shareholder loans perhaps ought to be part of any new APT rules which the Premier League now brings in.

"We suspect that this could be of concern to up to nine Premier League clubs which are believed to have received such loans. However, changing the Premier League’s rules may be difficult – typically, it requires the consent of 14 of its members, and it may now be even trickier to persuade clubs to agree on a new set of APT rules.”

The Premier League's stance was also backed by Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, West Ham, Brentford, Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves

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