Sports
“The door has been opened,” Newcastle United has been told the chances of suing Premier League following Manchester City’s statement
Stefan Borson, a football finance expert, does not feel Newcastle United has a claim following Manchester City’s legal struggle with the Premier League.
Manchester City claimed success in their legal case against the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules, writing in an official statement that the “APT rules have been found to be unlawful” and that they “violate UK competition law and the requirements of procedural fairness.”
APT rules were implemented three years after Newcastle’s £305 million takeover by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, immediately limiting its potential to negotiate lucrative partnerships with PIF-linked companies. The front-of-shirt deal with Sela, which is estimated to be worth roughly £25 million each season, was subject to a ‘fair market value’ verification.
It has left Newcastle supporters wondering how the arbitration decision will affect their team, with one fan contacting talkSPORT to enquire whether there are grounds to challenge the Premier League.
“It depends what they have to anchor it to,” former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan replied. “City had a couple of commercial deals to anchor it to.
“If Newcastle have an example of a commercial deal that has been pushed back by the Premier League because of an Associated Party Transaction that hasn’t been valued at that premise, then they might have a go too because the door has been opened.”
However, Borson is doubtful: “The one thing that is beyond doubt in terms of reading this decision is that these rules were brought in relation to the takeover of Newcastle. Within five days, the other clubs were writing to each other to say ‘we have to get some rules in place’.
“Behind the scenes, there are loads and loads of APT transactions that have been successfully processed by the Premier League, so it gives an example as of June, where it says 52 ATP have been successfully processed and were processed relatively quickly, and 11 took a bit longer.
“I would assume some of the rejections came in that subset 11 but the key point is, lots of transactions under these rules have been processed historically and therefore will continue to be.
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