‘Imminent’ verdict expected on Manchester City’s legal challenge against the Premier League | OneFootball

A verdict on Manchester City’s legal challenge against the Premier League’s associated-party transaction rules is expected ‘imminently’, according to new reports.

The Premier League champions faced off against the English top-flight in a legal battle back in June over the organisation’s commercial rules, and specifically the legality of the division’s associated party transaction (APT) rules.

Upon Manchester City making the legal claim, it was reported at the time that the Premier League had in turn offered their remaining 19 members and clubs the opportunity to make witness statements as part of the case.

Neither the Premier League nor Manchester City responded to requests for a comment on the case at the time, however a full verdict is not far away from being disclosed to the general public, according to details in a new report.

That is according to the information of The Telegraph’s Jeremy Wilson and Tom Morgan, a verdict into Manchester City’s legal challenge of the Premier League’s associated-party financial rules is expected ‘imminently’.

A two-week arbitration hearing was heard in private back in June and, with a Premier League shareholders’ meeting of clubs on Thursday, The Telegraph reveal that an outcome is expected over the coming days.

Previous reports have suggested that Manchester City argued they were being affected by a “tyranny of the majority”, with the Premier League champions also seeking “damages for the losses which it has incurred as a result of the unlawfulness of the FMV (fair market value) rules”.

The Telegraph further relay the belief from Manchester City that rival clubs within the Premier League are looking to “safeguard their own commercial advantages”.

The rules were “deliberately intended to stifle commercial freedoms of particular clubs in particular circumstances, and thus to restrict economic competition”, the claim reportedly says. “There is no rational or logical connection between a club’s financial non-sustainability and its receipt of revenues from entities linked to ownerships.”

Several subsequent reports have highlighted the sheer size and importance of Manchester City’s legal challenge to the Premier League’s commercial rules earlier this year.

By definition, a Manchester City win would mean that the concept of the Premier League being able to analyse commercial deals for ‘Fair Market Value’ would be undermined, and associated parties could put in sponsorship deals as high as they wanted with no challenge.

A victory for the Etihad Stadium club would also call into question the validity of some of the rules, albeit historic, under which Manchester City are being charged by the Premier League in the case which began earlier this month in London.