lovejoy

Naturally, but howay man, he's going to all out war with the PL, i'm guessing he's pretty well informed (and qualified) to do so.

Man City's lawyer, he has sent that to all 19 clubs today.

What's your take on this @madras? (Genuine question). Cliff said: “When the PL consulted on and proposed the original APT Rules in late 2021, we pointed out that the process (which took several weeks) was rushed, ill-thought-out and would result in rules that were anti-competitive. The recent award (conclusion of the panel) has validated those concerns entirely. “The tribunal has declared the APT rules to be unlawful. MCFC’s [Manchester City’s] position is that this means all of the APT rules are void, and have been since 2021. “In recent correspondence, the PL agreed with MCFC that this is an issue which will need to be resolved by the tribunal. It is therefore remarkable that the PL is now seeking to involve the member clubs in a process to amend the APT rules at a time when it does not even know the status of those rules.” A warning from Cliff then follows, suggesting there has been a loss of trust in the league. “We will be writing separately about this to the PL but in the meantime, given the findings in the award, this is the time for careful reflection and consideration by all clubs, and not for a knee-jerk reaction,” he writes. “Such an unwise course would be likely to lead to further legal proceedings with further legal costs. It is critical for member clubs to feel that they can have trust in their regulator.” Cliff then makes a further series of points. He states that the tribunal’s 175-page ruling “does not contain an ‘endorsement’ of the APT rules, nor does it state that the APT rules, as enacted, were ‘necessary’ in order to ensure the efficacy of the League’s financial controls”. He says “it is not correct that the tribunal’s decision identifies ‘certain discrete elements” of the APT rules that need to be amended in order to comply with competition and public law requirements”. “On the contrary,” Cliff adds. “The APT rules . . . have been found to be unlawful, as a matter of competition law and public law. This means that they are void and not capable of enforcement. This has very significant consequences for APTs that have been entered into to date and APTs that are currently being negotiated by clubs.”

Agreed.

Sure is.

But remember folks, this will not make a single jot of difference to NUFC. We must not forget that part.

This is going to go off. In a letter seen by The Times, Cliff has described the summary of the panel’s award as “not correct” and warns of further legal disputes if clubs bow to pressure to make some swift amendments to the rules on Associated Party Transactions (APT). An emergency meeting of the clubs is due to be held next week but it will take place against the backdrop of this war of words as well as the continuing hearing into City’s 115 alleged breaches of financial rules. Cliff tells clubs that the Premier League’s “summary is misleading and contains several inaccuracies”. “Of even greater concern,” Cliff adds, “is the PL’s suggestion that new APT rules should be passed within the next ten days.” The league said that, after the two-week private arbitration hearing in June, the tribunal had actually backed its APT rules, identifying only a “small number of discrete elements . .. which do not, in current form, comply with competition and public law requirements”. Cliff said: “When the PL consulted on and proposed the original APT Rules in late 2021, we pointed out that the process (which took several weeks) was rushed, ill-thought-out and would result in rules that were anti-competitive. The recent award (conclusion of the panel) has validated those concerns entirely. “The tribunal has declared the APT rules to be unlawful. MCFC’s [Manchester City’s] position is that this means all of the APT rules are void, and have been since 2021. “In recent correspondence, the PL agreed with MCFC that this is an issue which will need to be resolved by the tribunal. It is therefore remarkable that the PL is now seeking to involve the member clubs in a process to amend the APT rules at a time when it does not even know the status of those rules.” A warning from Cliff then follows, suggesting there has been a loss of trust in the league. “We will be writing separately about this to the PL but in the meantime, given the findings in the award, this is the time for careful reflection and consideration by all clubs, and not for a knee-jerk reaction,” he writes. “Such an unwise course would be likely to lead to further legal proceedings with further legal costs. It is critical for member clubs to feel that they can have trust in their regulator.”

This is just fantastic 😂

How will they get anything passed going forward? If 7 clubs team up, then nothing will go through will it?

sorry, just re-read the first line, you've said exactly this 😂

I think the majority miss the point tbh.

You'd imagine so. Not sure anyone has a clue what comes next tbh, but we're going to soon find out.

I'm sure we're both hoping that there’s a benefit for NUFC in all of this, so we definitely have that in common! Fingers crossed mate !

Again, my understanding is limited, but the Man City charges don’t relate to Etihad sponsorships, do they? i thought they were linked to much wider issues as opposed to being as cut and dried as that, I’ll bow out at this point though—I’ve spent way too much time debating points that are mostly conjecture, especially on my side! We’ll see what happens soon; you’d imagine the emergency meeting will take place quickly.

Yep, it goes against a lot of opinions on Twitter and elsewhere. Time will tell, but I struggle to see how the Premier League’s unlawful implementation of the rules won’t impact us in some way. Let’s see what happens.

This sums up where I am.

Man City's shirt sponsor in their first champs league season was £20m per season. Thats about £32m ish in today's money. We got £25m off Sela,

So may conflicting views, man 😂

Interesting point that.

Only to Mike Ashley though, right?

Both of those sentences can't be true.

Well he didn't, but i'm not about to have a debate defending Simon Jordan as i'm not his biggest fan 😂

You can’t have one without the other, in my opinion, but we’ll agree to disagree here. 👍🏻

As much as a whopper as Simon Jordan can be, he seems to think that Man City have done a lot more than shot the PL in the 'little toe'. Guess we'll soon find out. Interesting few days/weeks ahead thats for sure. Football was much better when it was played on the pitch though, thats for sure.

Ah ok, so not set in stone then? Good.