Newcastle United set to attend emergency Premier League meeting after major U-turn confirmed

It comes after Manchester City claimed to have won their legal battle against the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules on Monday. Although many of Man City’s legal challenges were unsuccessful, it was deemed that aspects of APT rules introduced three years ago were ‘unlawful’.

The APT rules and ‘fair market value’ were introduced shortly after Newcastle United were taken over by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund in 2021. Former Magpies co-owner Amanda Staveley hit out at the rule change as a deliberate move from the Premier League to limit the speed of the club’s progress under new ownership.

While Man City’s legal case is separate from the club’s 115 alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules, the ruling that certain aspects of APT rules are unlawful is significant with City seeking damages for any losses incurred due to the rule change.

The two-week arbitration hearing saw Newcastle provide supporting evidence having suffered from the rule change themselves.

Claiming victory, a Manchester City club statement read: “Following today’s publication of the Rule X Arbitral Tribunal Award, Manchester City Football Club thanks the distinguished members of the Arbitral Tribunal for their work and considerations and welcomes their findings

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“The Club has succeeded with its claim: the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules have been found to be unlawful and the Premier League’s decisions on two specific MCFC sponsorship transactions have been set aside.

“The Tribunal found that both the original APT rules and the current, (amended) APT Rules violate UK competition law and violate the requirements of procedural fairness. The Premier League was found to have abused its dominant position.

“The Tribunal has determined both that the rules are structurally unfair and that the Premier League was specifically unfair in how it applied those rules to the Club in practice.

“The rules were found to be discriminatory in how they operate, because they deliberately excluded shareholder loans.

“As well as these general findings on legality, the Tribunal has set aside specific decisions of the Premier League to restate the fair market value of two transactions entered into by the Club.

“The tribunal held that the Premier League had reached the decisions in a procedurally unfair manner.

“The Tribunal also ruled that there was an unreasonable delay in the Premier League’s fair market value assessment of two of the Club’s sponsorship transactions, and so the Premier League breached its own rules.”

However, a statement issued by the Premier League also appears to claim some form of victory due to several of Man City’s challenges and allegations failing.

The Premier League has now arranged an emergency meeting to discuss potential changes to APT rules with all 20 clubs invited.

A relaxing of the rules could benefit Newcastle as they look to increase commercial revenue and have a large pool of PIF-linked companies with which to arrange potentially lucrative deals. Such revenue is crucial in helping clubs adhere to Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules and maintain competitive squads.