October 16 – An emergency Premier League meeting scheduled for Thursday to discuss a legal dispute with Manchester City over sponsorship rules has been postponed.
League officials were hoping for a swift resolution after a tribunal concluded that key elements of the rules governing commercial deals between clubs and related companies were “unlawful”.
The meeting was intended to decide how to respond to last week’s verdict but clubs have now been informed that it has been called off.
On Friday, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters warned clubs it was “taking the necessary time” to take stock of the ruling, and hinted at a possible delay. The meeting will apparently now take place early next week.
Both sides claimed victory after the decision of an arbitration panel was published last Monday, following a legal challenge by City against the league’s associated party transaction (APT) regulations. APT rules are in place to ensure sponsorship deals with companies linked to clubs’ owners represent fair market value.
City had some complaints upheld, with two aspects of the rules deemed unlawful by the tribunal.
Both sides claimed victory with the Premier League saying the panel “endorsed the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of the APT system”, adding it would seek to amend its rules “quickly and effectively”.
But in a letter sent to top-flight clubs and the Premier League, City wrote that the rules were now “void”, that the club had “concern [over] the Premier League’s suggestion that new APT rules should be passed within the next 10 days”, and signalled possible further legal action if there was a “knee-jerk reaction”.
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