The Premier League has spoken out in favor of stricter rules for sponsorship contracts with clubs in the elite class. Four clubs spoke out against it, including champions Manchester City.
The aim of the Premier League is to ensure that sponsorship contracts can no longer be artificially inflated. At a meeting on Friday, the clubs agreed on the introduction of new, stricter rules. In the future, the “Associated Party Transactions” (APT), introduced in 2021, will be used to assess whether commercial agreements between clubs and companies that have links to the respective club owners have been concluded at market rates.
Manchester City had tried to block the rule change. The English champions are owned by the City Football Group (CFG), a holding company controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi. Sheikh Mansour is the group’s main investor and founder.
First partial success, then setback for ManCity
The changes take into account an arbitration tribunal’s decision that previous adjustments to the “Associated Party Transactions” (APT) partially violate British competition law. ManCity had challenged the rules and achieved a partial success in October. The vote that has now been taken, on the other hand, is a bitter setback for Pep Guardiola’s team, who have extended their contract with the Skyblues.
16 Premier League clubs voted in favor of the stricter sponsorship rules, which are intended to ensure a competitive balance in the league and prevent artificially inflated contract values. In addition to ManCity, Saudi-controlled Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, the club of the flamboyant Greek Evangelos Marinakis, voted against it.
The Champions League can feel like a winner
The result is seen as a success for Premier League CEO Richard Masters, who has been at loggerheads with ManCity for years. A defeat would have called the rules into question and could have plunged the league into legal chaos.
The Premier League is currently investigating 115 financial violations against City, which denies the allegations. A decision is expected early next year.
