Stefan Borson drops verdict on Man City landing ‘huge’ windfall
Manchester City are unlikely to receive huge damages despite successfully proving some of the associated party transaction (APT) rules are unlawful.
That is the view of former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider it will be difficult for the English champions to prove the rules led to them making a significant loss in their attempts to strike a new sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways.
Man City took legal action against the Premier League regarding the APT rules currently in place at an arbitration hearing in June.
Both sides have claimed a victory in the case after the arbitration panel’s decision was published on 7 October, where two aspects of the rules were deemed to be unlawful.
Man City are now eligible to seek damages on any lost earnings following the ruling.
A significant part of the case was Pep Guardiola’s side striking a lucrative extension to their deal with Etihad, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government through the wealth fund ADQ.
Man City need to prove APT rules caused substantial losses
Borson revealed the difference between what has been approved by the Premier League and the deal Man City are seeking with Etihad is less than £100million.
“I suspect City will probably not get material damages,” Borson told Football Insider.
“The likelihood is that some form of deal will be done that the Premier League accept is fair market value.
“It’s really just a bit of a negotiation around what size it is.
“It looks like the total difference over the full period of the proposed deal with Etihad is less than £100million over the entire deal in terms of what has been approved and what City want.
“City have got to prove the things that were unlawful were the things that caused the loss, the difference between what they could have done had it all been in a lawful way in terms of processing by the Premier League and what actually was carried out.
“The top and bottom of it is, I suspect it’s going to be very hard for City to prove that those things caused the loss and I’m not so sure there is that big of a loss.
“The chances are there won’t be a huge compensation claim I would suspect.”
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