Manchester City latest on Premier League case

National World - LocalTV

A big case ahead for the club against the PL.

Transcript

00:00 Michael, on to Manchester City. In terms of the latest on their Premier League case, what's

00:07 the latest you can tell us that's been emerging?

00:10 Yeah, it's a bit, listen, it's a very complicated situation. Neither the Premier League nor

00:20 Manchester City are really saying too much in regards of the report that broke last week

00:25 from the Times. Essentially, Manchester City have brought a case against the Premier League

00:34 in relation to a number of aspects, but the big one being those associated party transactions,

00:41 which essentially is that obviously Manchester City have links with Abu Dhabi, well, their

00:49 owners are obviously based there, and if they were, for instance, to have a sponsorship

00:54 deal with someone in Abu Dhabi, as City do have, that just needs to be checked by the

00:59 Premier League to make sure that they are not inflating the figures to help boost their

01:04 finances. That's not just for Manchester City, that's across the board, all 20 Premier League

01:08 clubs. It's rules that I think few people would question, that you've got to have fair

01:13 market value to create a sense of competitiveness in sport and in the Premier League. City,

01:20 by all means, by the looks of things, really do want to try and rip that up a little bit.

01:25 They do really want to try and create a scenario and an environment where they are allowed

01:31 to exercise their financial muscle, which is not particularly in keeping, actually,

01:37 with the last couple of years, where City have been so wary of the fact that they had

01:40 earned a reputation for spending their way to success, a reputation that City refuted

01:46 and felt was unfair because City would point to their net spend over the last five years,

01:52 which is significantly lower than the likes of Villa and Newcastle, for instance. So it's

01:57 a strange move for me, for City. And there was talk of this tyranny of the majority stuff,

02:03 which is, I mean, it's basic democracy, really, that City's going to be trying to, I suppose,

02:12 overthrow or trying to, overthrow is probably the wrong word, trying to remove this two-thirds

02:19 voting in the Premier League. It's just not a good case. And they're also, as well,

02:25 City bringing a case against the Premier League, essentially claiming that these associated

02:29 parties and transaction rules have limited their income and have impacted them financially

02:35 and actually bringing damages against the Premier League. So I think the big question

02:39 for me is, where does this leave City and the Premier League? Because you've got this

02:43 huge, this giant club who are hoovering up Premier League titles and they are clearly

02:49 have such issues with the Premier League. The Premier League themselves obviously have

02:54 issues with Manchester City because they've brought these 115 cases and 115 charges against

02:59 them. It's not, it doesn't look like a particularly happy and healthy relationship. And it also

03:05 has had impacts across the Premier League. I mean, you've seen reports of the likes of

03:09 Newcastle and Aston Villa, Chelsea, I think, in support of Manchester City and other clubs

03:14 since siding with the Premier League. So all around, it's really just not a particularly

03:19 good case, to be honest, not a particularly good story for football. And I think that

03:25 whether you're a Manchester City fan or not, there always needs to be a sense of fairness

03:31 and competitiveness in football and in sport. And you do worry that some of the things that

03:36 City are trying to bring against the Premier League would take away a lot of that. So I

03:42 do think it's a concern for football in general, but particularly the Premier League. And it

03:48 links to a number of other questions once we get to the end of this trial, which not

03:53 this week, the following week, it should be wrapped up according to the times. We'd be

03:57 surprised if these things do drag on a little bit longer, as they very often do. But yeah,

04:01 But yeah, it's going to have huge ramifications I think for English and Premier League football.

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