Manchester City has successfully acted against the sponsorship rules of the Premier League. They provided for a restriction for the clubs’ donors.
As several media from Great Britain report, the entire rules of the Premier League are now “transactions with connected parties” (APT), which was considered between 2021 and 2024. A specially used independent three -person arbitration court made the decision. A new version of the rules has been in effect since November 2024.
Rules should ensure balanced competition
In principle, the APT rules should prevent clubs from benefiting from sponsoring contracts with companies that are connected to the club’s owners and pay amounts above the actual market value.
Manchester City with the Premier League Trophy 2022/23
In principle, the clubs may only spend more money on the financial regulations accordingly. This means that if you take more, you can spend more for your player. For example, if a state fund provides excessive sponsorship through an airline, which is also in its possession, there would be those income that enables higher expenses. This is exactly what prevents the rule. The conditions of loans from the owners also play a role.
The rules were introduced in 2021 when Saudi Arabia’s Newcastle United State Fund bought Newcastle. At that time, the fear was that Saudi Arabia with high sponsorship contracts Newcastle could significantly support in the competition.
Premier League believes that the new rules are valid
The rules were changed in November 2024 by the majority coordination of the clubs. The Premier League believes that they remain in force and said: “This decision expressly has no effect on the validity of the new rules.”
For the Premier League, however, the question arises whether clubs, whose business have been restricted by the rules now declared invalid, are putting on legal process.
Richard Masters, Managing Director of Premier League
For the time being, no reference to the procedure due to the financial violations
The process has nothing with the procedure against Manchester City, in which the club is accused of numerous violations of financial regulations of the Premier League. But it is also about such sponsorship transactions. The hearings started in September, a decision is pending.
It is about possible offenses from the period between 2009 and 2018, i.e. the first nine full seasons of the club in possession of Abu Dhabis Sheikh Mansour with his investment company. In the period mentioned, the club is said to have provided inaccurate or false information about its finances, have given incorrect information about sponsorship revenue and have provided incomplete information about player salaries, which the club expressly denies.
Manchester City’s club owner sheikh Mansour
UEFA’s Financial FairPlay has long changed on this question
At European level, UEFA changed its procedure for its financial rules in this reference. In their rules, all transactions must now correspond to the market value and not those with certain parties. Because while the market value was somewhat easy to determine by agencies, proof of the connection of a party often remained the problem.