Man City to land new blow in legal battle – Stefan Borson
The Premier League is likely to be informed its new associated party transaction (APT) rules are lawful following the legal battle with Manchester City.
That is the view of former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Premier League would likely see that as a time to move on from the situation.
Man City took legal action against the Premier League regarding the APT rules at an arbitration hearing in June, with two aspects of the regulations deemed unlawful when the panel published its findings in October.
The Premier League issued proposed amendments in early November, with the top-flight clubs approving those changes at a meeting in London on 22 November.
It is believed 16 sides voted in favour of the proposals, ensuring the governing body received the required two-thirds majority, as only Man City, Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest rejected the motion.
In a statement, the Premier League said the changes relate to “integrating the assessment of shareholder loans” and “include the removal of some of the amendments made to APT rules earlier this year”.
But the two parties are still waiting for further clarification from the tribunal after they put forward extra questions following the verdict.
Man City and Premier League are waiting on further information
“From the inside between the parties, the Premier League and Manchester City are waiting for a further determination of the tribunal,” Borson told Football Insider.
“That’s going to be interesting because if that tribunal, as I suspect, supports the Premier League’s position that all the rules are effectively valid and that they can make the changes they made on 22 November, that may be for the Premier League a time to move on.
“The Premier League might say ‘There is the final determination of the tribunal. Yes, we overextended ourselves in February 2024, we have now rowed those back, we have introduced the shareholder loans provisions and now we are fine’.
“I suspect we will end up in a scenario where the changes are lawful and are the rules that we will have going forward.
“But we will just have to wait for the final determination of that tribunal first.”
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