The battle between Man City and the Premier League continued to escalate as the Manchester team filed a lawsuit against the trading rules of the involved party (APT) of the Premier League.
This means that there are currently three cases happening between Man City and the Premier League. A case involving more than 100 accusations of Man City violating the financial rules of the tournament that this team always resolutely denied. A initial APT lawsuit that Man City against the Premier League. And now is a new lawsuit.
It should be known, APT’s rules to adjust the trade agreements signed between clubs and companies that contact their owners.
Richard Masters, Director of the Premier League, informed the top clubs on Thursday that Man City initiated a new referee complaint for the amendments that have been voted in November.
The letter that Masters sent to the clubs, was first reported by The Times, with the content: “On January 20, 2025, Manchester City FC started the next session to protest the rules of the APT”. .
“As you will see, the new challenge is related to the amendments to APT rules approved by the clubs at the shareholder meeting on November 22, 2024. Manchester City FC wants to declare that the amendments approved by clubs in November (and are effective) are illegal and invalid. ”
“The Premier League retains a strong view that the amendments passed in November are legal and APT’s rules comply with all requirements of the Competition Law.”
“We think the new referee must resolve as soon as possible and for that purpose, we agreed that the same court will be appointed to trial the new case. The parties are currently exchanging related to the next instructions ”.
“APT regulations are still full and clubs still have to comply with all aspects of the system.”
Despite the new legal challenge, the current APT rules are still maintained and considered legal.
The view of Man City is the new rules that are discriminating against and face the same legal issues as the previous rules. The Etihad team believes that shareholders’ loans have not been carefully considered in the same way as other trade agreements.
In the view of Man City, those loans should have been subject to reasonable market value tests at that time and now suffered re -testing tests with trade agreements from 2021 to In 2024. Man City said that the revised rules help clubs keep the advantage and thus illegal. In November last year, an independent council also issued an illegal decision with APT rules.
In addition, Man City also believes that they still receive the support of stance from the teams who voted with them in October including Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.
In June last year, an independent council discovered a number of aspects of APT regulations that were illegal. However, the Premier League organized a consultation of clubs for more than a month about the revision of APT rules. In November, 16 clubs voted through changes, only Man City, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa voted against proposed changes.
At that time, Man City argued that the voting should not be voted until the Court gave a full guidance on APT rules. And now, the Premier League champion team four times in a row is looking for another referee.
Meanwhile, the Premier League said the amendments to APT rules in November were designed to ensure equality between the handling of loans of shareholders and other APTs in the future.
Man City’s legal challenge may be discussed when clubs meeting shareholders next Thursday.