Manchester City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' clubs over associated party transaction case

Manchester City have accused the Premier League of "misleading" clubs over the legal case the Sky Blues fought over top-flight rules governing commercial deals.

City wrote to the other 19 clubs and the league on Monday night to challenge the league's interpretation of the outcome and the four-in-a-row champions insisted their position was that all the associated party transaction (APT) rules were now void.

"Regrettably, the summary is misleading and contains several inaccuracies," the club’s general counsel Simon Cliff wrote in an email.

"Of even greater concern, however, is the Premier League’s suggestion that new APT rules should be passed within the next 10 days.

"When the Premier League 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 has validated those concerns entirely.

"The tribunal has declared the APT rules to be unlawful. MCFC’s position is that this means that all of the APT rules are void, and have been since 2021."

City launched a legal challenge to the APT rules earlier this year on the grounds that they breached competition law.

The APT rules are designed to ensure that to ensure commercial deals with entities linked to a club’s owners are done for fair market value and not artificially inflated.

City declared victory after the arbitration panel found the rules to be unlawful because they excluded shareholder loans.

Cliff told clubs it was "peculiar" that the league had said in its summary that City were unsuccessful in the majority of their challenge.

"While it is true that MCFC did not succeed with every point that it ran in its legal