Manchester City have claimed that the Premier League’s sponsorship rules were ‘deliberately’ changed to ‘stifle the commercial freedoms’ of clubs like Newcastle United.
Manchester City’s arbitration hearing against the Premier League got under way last week and is slated to run until Friday. The champions have challenged the validity of the top-flight’s associated party transaction (APT) regulations, which were introduced after Newcastle’s takeover in 2021, to ensure all commercial deals with companies associated with clubs’ owners were independently assessed to establish they were of fair market value.
Manchester City, who separately deny 115 alleged breaches of the top-flight’s financial rules, have suggested that 18 rival clubs voted through the regulations in response to Newcastle’s buy-out so that they could ‘safeguard their own commercial advantages’. Manchester City, according to the Times, have claimed that their rivals set out to limit deals from companies in the Gulf region and the champions have cited a quote from a senior executive from another club after alleging there has been ‘discrimination against Gulf ownership’.
