Man City 'launch legal action' against Premier League over financial rules

right first though the times are reporting tonight that Manchester City have launched legal action against the Premier League over what they claim are unlawful Financial rules the action by city is separate to the 115 charges that they're facing but they could have a huge impact on the outcome of that hearing to come as you can see C Sol our chief reporter joins me now so look first of all what's the basis of City's argument then well I think first of all we should say that this is a very uh good exclusive Story by Matt Lon uh in the times and what he's been reporting uh this afternoon is really unprecedented but we've got a situation where a Premier League club Manchester City the champions of the Premier League are basically suing the Premier League and what Manchester City are going to argue at this uh arbitration hearing which will start on Monday is that some of the Premier League's Financial rules are unlawful and they are in compatible with UK competition law and the rules they're talking about are the associated party transaction rules now these were bought in in 2021 and they're designed to make sure that if a club signs a commercial deal with a company that is linked to its owners that deal has to be of fair value and that is checked to make sure that it's of fair value so if you're the owner of a Premier League club and you have another company say an airline or an energy company and you want to get that Airline or Energy company to sponsor your club because that is a good way of bringing Revenue into your Club you have connections with that other company that deal has to be checked by independent Auditors to make sure that it is of fair value so you can't just make up a number and say the deal is worth 100 200 300 million p as a way of bringing money into your Club it has to be a fair value and what Manchester City are going to argue is that these Associated uh party transaction rules are unlawful and obviously this could have big serious ramifications for the future competitive balance of the Premier League okay talk us through what effect this is going to have on the 115 alleged breaches of their financial rules then how will this affect that case well I mean they are two separate things okay uh the 115 charges uh those are charges that have been brought by the Premier League against Manchester City uh for allegations that they have broken the Premier League's Financial rules over 12 or 13 years now the hearing into those charges is set for November but obviously a lot of those charges are also to do with sponsorship deals uh deals that were done with companies who are connected to the owners of Manchester City so if Manchester City win this case which starts next week I think that would blow a big hole in the Premier League's case at the hearing in November about the 115 charges because Manchester City would have argued successfully next week that some of these rules are unlawful and incompatible with UK competition law Cary and you may not know the answer this question but I'm just putting it out there for somebody that's kind of seeing this from from so many different sides do you think the Premier League saw this coming at all or be because obviously this 115 charges against them has taken a very long time so do you think they they saw this coming at all this 165 page dossier of of which Matt Lon says he's seen yeah I don't think he's come totally out of the blue uh because I think uh we were told at a premier league shareholders meeting off the top of my head I think it was in March that a Premier League club was launching legal action against the Premier League so it hasn't totally come out of the blue but we certainly did not have all the details that Matt Lon has provided today you know what the bigger picture is though the bigger picture is an argument about ownership of Premier League clubs and the argument is if you're the owner of a Premier League club should you be allowed to put in as much money as you want some people will argue why not otherwise what's the point of buying a Prem the club belongs to you if you want to buy Klean mbappe if you want to buy Messi and Neymar you've got the money to do it and you can make it work financially why shouldn't you be able to do that that is one side of the argument for instance Jack Walker when Blackburn Rovers uh won the Premier League he went out and spent as much money as he wanted buying players like Alan Shir for instance and winning the title now under the new Financial rules that is no longer possible so the other side of the argument is that yes of course you should have these Financial rules because otherwise you going to have a situation where the rich are going to get richer and they're going to win everything so you need to have some semblance of competitive balance and that's why we have these Financial rules but also what's going to be interesting at this hearing that starts next Monday is the Premier League also asked the clubs in the league to be involved in the hearing as well so according to Matt Lon some of them have been providing witness statements and he believes that between 10 and 12 are on the side of the Premier League so they will be standing up for these Financial rules but that obviously means that there could be up to eight clubs who want to get rid of these Associated parties transaction rules and we've now got the situation where so many Premier League clubs are owned by um you know state connected owners uh trust funds private Equity firms that they want to be able to put more money into their clubs and they believe that a lot of these Financial rules are holding them back okay Carvey thank you very much no doubt this story will rumble on a little bit more but thank you for now [Music]

Channel: Sky Sports News

Views: 222,427

Keywords: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Tottenham, West Ham, Wolves, Premeir League, FFP, Financial charges, Points deduction, Richard Masters

Id: 4tPGEbpla5Y

Length: 6min 32sec (392 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 04 2024