Man City can appeal ‘damaging’ Premier League verdict – Keith Wyness
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness believes Manchester City will be able to appeal against the verdict in their associated party transactions (APT) case against the Premier League.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, the 66-year-old – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – insisted there has to be some form of mediation between the two parties if they remain unhappy after the decision has been delivered.
Man City and the Premier League clashed over the APT rules in June during a two-week hearing.
The English champions questioned the legality of the APT rules, branding them “anti-competitive” – and sued the governing body for damages.
The Athletic reported on 15 August both parties have indicated they intend to appeal against the decision if it goes against them, with a verdict expected to be delivered soon.
Man City and Premier League case must be brought to close
But Wyness is hoping the case will be brought to a close quickly as he believes it is “damaging” for the Premier League.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “This is exactly what we were hoping wouldn’t happen is that this gets dragged out again for another leg of discussion, damaging the Premier League and City.
“You really would hope that these highly paid KC’s would get together and try and find some way to put this to bed.
“But, of course, they are getting paid £5,000-10,000 an hour almost, so why would they want to do that? It’s a whole fee strategy in terms of dragging things out. But certainly, this should be resolved.
“If there is an appeal and the Premier League are saying ‘We are not happy with the panel that we put in place’, that would really be the Premier League appealing against their own panel, which is strange.
“But they may question the panel in some way about the decisions they come to.
“City can certainly appeal, but it’s just never good when you have got the Premier League fighting with one of their shareholders in such a vicious way in the open.
“When this decision gets released and we see the written discussions behind it, if both parties are unhappy, then there has got to be some sort of mediation and resolution to this.
“It just can’t go on like this, it’s just becoming so damaging.”
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