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The verdict has been announced in Manchester City’s legal case against the Premier League over the league’s rules on commercial deals involving clubs’ owners.
City, who are owned by the Abu Dhabi-backed City Football Group, had some complaints upheld, with two aspects of the associated party transaction (APT) rules deemed unlawful by a tribunal.
But the Premier League says the tribunal rejected the majority of Manchester City’s challenges and “endorsed the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of the APT system”.
APTs are aimed at the value of sponsorship deals with companies linked to clubs’ owners.
This case is not directly related to the Premier League disciplinary commission which will hear 115 charges against City for allegedly breaching its financial regulations, some of which date back to 2009.
The tribunal – in a 175-page document – ruled that shareholder loans should not be excluded from the scope of APT rules and that some amendments made in February by the Premier League should not be retained.
In this arbitration process, Chelsea, Newcastle and Everton all acted as witnesses for City.
Witnesses for the Premier League included Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Brighton and West Ham.
Brentford, Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves wrote letters in support of the rules.
BBC Sport has asked all the clubs mentioned for comment and none have yet responded.
Simon Leaf, partner and head of sport at law firm Mishcon de Reya, told BBC Sport: “Whilst the decision will be embarrassing for the Premier League, because in a couple of narrow areas their rules have been found to be unlawful, generally speaking the decision confirms that the vast majority of the APT rules are indeed lawful.
Speaking at the Law in Sport Global Summit, Leaf added: “Therefore whilst we can expect to see some changes to the rules going forwards, on the whole this isn’t a resounding victory for Manchester City by any stretch of the imagination.”
The Premier League has called a meeting for next week to discuss the implications of the judgement.
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