Premier League bombshell email sent on behalf of 11 teams ahead of Wolves’ vote against Newcastle

BirminghamLive has the most recent Wolves news, including a request for a restriction on related-party transactions in Manchester City’s arbitration lawsuit against the Premier League.

A Premier League official representing 11 top-flight teams urged a restriction on related-party transactions just days after Newcastle United’s takeover.

That is according to the published decision in Manchester City’s arbitration lawsuit against the Premier League, after both sides claimed victory. Manchester City has declared that the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules are illegal, but the Premier League has stated that it will ‘continue to operate the present APT system, taking into account the decisions made by the tribunal’.

Five days after Newcastle’s takeover, in October 2021, an executive at another Premier League club, whose name has been redacted, emailed the top flight on behalf of his club and ten others, stating that notice of a vote would be given in five days’ time, ‘or sooner if permitted to introduce a short-term ban on any related party transactions of any kind’.

He wrote: “This rule should have the widest possible definition of a ‘related party’ perhaps using the takeover code definitions when applied to companies like those in the Gulf region…the rules covering related party transactions and new cost control measures, together with any sanctions for breaches, should be formulated by the PL legal and financial teams with support from a working group of club CEOs who can volunteer.”

The Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Masters, contacted all member clubs three days later to indicate that the top division would begin a consultation process to evaluate some parts of PSR rules, particularly the status of related-party transactions. Masters’ email included suggested revisions to the guidelines that would impose a prohibition on what were now known as APTs. These revisions were draughted with the assistance of external legal professionals, and Masters stated that the draughting might be evaluated at the upcoming shareholder meeting the following week.

On the morning of October 18, before to the shareholders’ meeting, the legal advisory group held a 40-minute summit, which was a long-standing working group of in-house lawyers from the clubs, with Premier League representatives in attendance. The Premier League’s general counsel, Jamie Herbert and Kevin Plump, acknowledged that the takeover has highlighted that we now have a spectrum of owners of clubs with some complex structures and corporate relationships, and added that it was a ‘appropriate time to assess whether these rules are still fit for purpose’.

The shareholders’ meeting was held later that day at 4 p.m., when it was proposed that no APTs be held until a new financial controls advisory group was constituted, which would include representatives from eight teams, including Newcastle.

Eighteen teams, including the Wolves, voted to temporarily prohibit APTs. Newcastle were the sole club to vote against, with Manchester City abstaining.

Fast forward to another shareholders’ meeting on December 14, and the same 18 teams decided to approve new permanent APT rules.