MANCHESTER CITY have accused the Premier League of distorting its rules in favour of Arsenal and three other clubs over shareholder loans.
It is the latest development in the club’s long legal battle with competition chiefs over sponsorship rules originally launched last year after two Abu Dhabi sponsor deals were blocked by the league.
In February the club won a major battle against the Premier League over Associated Party Transaction rules with an independent tribunal ruling the regulations were “void and unenforceable”.
The Premier League hastily attempted to amend the ATP regulations following the verdict with City describing the move as “flawed and inadequate”.
But in a fresh challenge issued at the end of March, the champions have now claimed to an independent tribunal that Arsenal, Brighton, Everton and Leicester have all been given an unfair advantage.
According to The Times, City claim shareholders loans given to those clubs have not been treated in the same way as other ATPs like sponsorship deals with companies linked to club owners.
City now suggest the league should return to pre-2021 rules until the matters are fully resolved due to the amended league rules continuing to “discriminate” and give other clubs “differential treatment”.
The club argue the rules, “fail to meet the requirements of objectivity, precision and proportionality… and are liable to distort competition”.
City argue the Premier League should not change rules that have already been declared void and were too hasty to amend them.
They have criticised the league for claiming shareholder loans do not need to be assessed for fair market value in the same way as other APTs.
City also slammed the 50-day grace period clubs get to convert shareholder loans into equity which is argued to give clubs an unfair advantage with Profit and Sustainability Rules.
In Arsenal’s case, the Cityzens claim their title rivals in the last two seasons benefited from around £259million in shareholder loans during the 2022/23 season.
Elsewhere, Everton got loans of £450m in 2022/23, Brighton £406.5m in 2021/22 and Leicester £265m in 2021/22.
City said: “This continued preferential and discriminatory treatment of shareholder loans has the object and/or effect of distorting economic competition between member clubs on affected markets.”
They added the rules, “do not eliminate, but on the contrary perpetuate the discriminatory and distortive treatment previously found by the tribunal”.
On the rule changes, the Premier League have argued the amendments are “valid and enforceable”.
The same tribunal will rule on this new challenge, which could force the league to make more changes to its financial rules.
It will also jot up more legal costs while the separate issue of City’s 130 alleged breaches of financial breaches remains ongoing.
The report adds the same team of lawyers is fighting both cases for City.
Elsewhere for City, club legend Kevin De Bruyne has announced he will be leaving when the season ends.
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