Aston Villa’s Premier League rivals Manchester City are taking legal action against the Premier League, according to The Times
Aston Villa will be looking in with interest as Manchester City get ready to take legal action against the Premier League over tough sponsorship rules. According to The Times, City’s lawyers are bidding to overturn the league’s Associated Party Transaction (ATP) rules which limit what companies can invest in a club if they have common owners. The newspaper claims the move has sparked a ‘civil war’ between top-flight clubs.
City believe the rules are “unlawful” and are seeking damages for revenue they have lost since the regulations were voted in. ATP rules regard commercial and sponsorship deals with companies owned or associated with the same club’s owners.
The rules say such transactions have to be independently assessed to ensure they are of fair market value. They were introduced to stop the inflation of commercial deals with companies also linked to the club’s owners, but The Times quote a 165-page legal document in which City argue they are the victims of “discrimination”.
The dispute is set to be the focus of a two-week arbitration hearing beginning on Monday, June 10, as City push to end ATP rules that were brought in when Newcastle United were bought by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund in December 2021.
According to The Times, up to 12 Premier League clubs have so far agreed to provide witness statements or a letter in support of the Premier League’s defence. It is not known if Villa are one of them. However, if City are successful with their claim, it ‘could dramatically alter the landscape of the professional game’, it is suggested.
That’s because such a change will allow the champions and the Premier League’s other rich clubs to conduct sponsorship deals without independent assessment, therefore increasing the amount of money they can raise, leading to bigger transfer budgets to bolster their squads. City’s sponsors currently include Etihad Airways, Etisalat and Experience Abu Dhabi – all linked in some way to the club’s owners The Times also claims success in the case will also aid City’s case against 115 financial fair play charges as some relate to the alleged inflation of sponsorship deals. That hearing is set to get underway in November.
After qualifying for Champions League football last season, Aston Villa are increasing their revenue streams in a bid to catch up with the ‘big six’, who have been generating vast amounts of money for over a decade following Villa’s failed attempts to reach the Champions League under Randy Lerner. A loosening of sponsorship rules could potentially allow them to operate with less pressure from the top-flight’s spending rules.
The club’s president of business operations, Chris Heck, recently spoke about how the club needs to boost revenue to allow Unai Emery to continue improving his squad and therefore the chances of more success in the coming years.
“We have a real focus on tackling that problem [FFP], but it’ll take a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of changes as we grow our business,” he said on Villa TV. We use the analogy with FFP that we have a train which is the football side, and a train on the business side.
“The train on the football side is going lightning fast and that’s a good thing. The business side has to catch that train. We’re working around the clock trying to do sponsorship deals, changing the stadium to be beneficial to Financial Fair Play, find new revenue streams, take in our merchandise in-house and things of that nature.”