Everton and Liverpool were set to attend an emergency meeting called by the Premier League today (Wednesday) to vote on proposed amendments to top-flight sponsorship rules. Changes were triggered by an early outcome in Manchester City’s ongoing legal challenge.
Completely separate to the case over the 115 charges of financial misconduct Man City are accused of and deny, the initial outcome from an independent tribunal in October found certain elements of the English top-flight’s rules were unlawful. Interest was focused on those particularly covering Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules.
They are designed to ensure fair market value (FMV) deals between clubs and entities linked to their ownership, but as they excluded shareholder loans the ruling was that they were unlawful. Man City argued this rendered all APT rules void and accused the Premier League of misleading the other 19 clubs in its initial interpretation of the panel judgement.
In the aftermath league officials asked for the suggestions of both Everton and Liverpool, along with the rest of their Premier League rivals, as to how the rules should be amended to remain fair but include shareholder loans. Now The Times claim that a 14-page proposal, one that they have seen, outlining the changes that would be made to APT rules in the aftermath of last month’s ruling has been sent to all 20 clubs.
