European champions Manchester City have reportedly threatened the Premier League with legal action over the new rule regarding sponsorship deals.
The New PL Rule
The PL is set to toughen up rules regarding associated-party transactions which will block the clubs to over-inflate commercial deals with sponsors from their ownership groups.
This rule will make sure the wealthy owners do not inject their own money, ensuring that a financial parity is maintained between the PL clubs.
For example, LFC owners FSG will not be allowed to negotiate any terms whatsoever with Boston Globe, a publication owned by the same group, regarding Liverpool shirt sponsorship, even if they paid twice the fee of what Standard Chartered are paying.
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The Manchester City-Premier League Clash
As per a report via Sky News by Mark Kleinman, a PL club, reportedly Man City, have warned the Premier League that they will take legal action if PL decides to implement the rule.
Manchester City are owned by the City Football Group which is headed by the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. The Football Group has partnerships with at least seven UAE-based companies.
These companies are – Etihad Airways, e&, Experience Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Aldar, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Healthpoint.
Sky News journalist Mark Kleinman has elaborated that the Sky Blues ‘had informed the Premier League that it could resort to arbitration proceedings to prevent the changes being adopted.’
City argue that the rule would be ‘unlawful in English competition law,’ but the PL has disagreed with that.
“The Premier League is said to be confident that the legal advice it has received, which is that the APT reforms are permissible under competition law, is robust.”
wrote Kleinman.
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The Pending Charges on City
The other side of the Manchester is already awaiting a trial for 115 charges, brought by the Premier League itself.
These charges also include City’s incompetence in providing accurate information about their sponsorship revenues.
However, they are not the only club who are under scrutiny regarding the state-backed spending. Newcastle United under Saudi Royal Family’s ownership have also got their hands dirty.
The Magpies’ new shirt sponsor, Saudi-based events company Sela, are majority-owned by the state’s Public Investment Fund.
They are paying the club £25M-a-year, which is almost four-times more than previous £6.5M-a-year deal with Fun88.
The football pitch is once again set to be dirty, as the corporates and capitalistic institutions get themselves involved into the beautiful game that we call Football.
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