Champions Manchester City have taken legal action against the Premier League, to end the Associated Party Transaction (ATP) rules.

Those rules regard commercial and sponsorship deals with companies owned or associated with the same club’s owners.

As things stand, those rules dictate such transactions have to be independently assessed to be of fair market value.

City believe the rules are “unlawful” and they want to seek damages for revenue lost by preventions made by those rules, according to The Times.

The newspaper’s reporter, Matt Lawton, quoted a 165-page legal document in which City argue they are the victims of “discrimination”.

The rule was brought in in December 2021 as Newcastle was bought by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.

The legal dispute will be settled during a two-week arbitration hearing beginning on Monday, June 10.

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The Premier League and City have yet to speak on the legal action.

City were first charged in February 2023 with breaking financial fair play rules around 100 times over a nine-year period, which started in 2009 and ended in 2018.

Allegedly, they did not fully disclose the financial remunerations that were made to one of their managers over a four-year period. The suggestion is that there was a secret contract so one of the managers was getting paid much more than officially stated.

The Premier League also alleged City didn’t comply with UEFA’s financial fair play rules over a five-year period. They also alleged that City have not fully co-operated with the Premier League’s investigation.

Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol said: “The charges and this case are two separate things.

“The 115 charges have been brought by the Premier League against Man City for allegations that they have broken the league’s financial rules over 12 or 13 years.

“The hearing into those charges is set for November but obviously, a lot of those charges are also to do with sponsorship deals, deals that were done with companies that are connected to the owners of Manchester City.

“So, if Man City win this case, which starts next week, that would blow a big hole in the Premier League’s case at the hearing in November about the 115 charges because Man City would have argued successfully next week that some of these rules are unlawful and incompatible with UK competition law.”

The Star