Premier League teams have voted to accept modifications to the regulations regarding commercial agreements, despite the resistance from Manchester City, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, and Aston Villa.
During a meeting in London on Friday, clubs took fewer than 30 minutes to sanction the adjustments to the Associated Party Transaction (APT) regulations. The vote resulted in 16 clubs supporting the changes and four opposing. Manchester City and Aston Villa had contacted other clubs before the meeting to garner support.
A minimum of 14 Premier League clubs was required to back the amendments for them to pass.
The vote on Friday followed a ruling by an independent panel, which determined that some aspects of the Premier League’s regulations were unlawful earlier this year due to a lawsuit initiated by Manchester City.
According to the Premier League, the changes to the rules involve “integrating the assessment of shareholder loans” and “removing some of the modifications made to the APT rules earlier this year.”
“The objective of the APT rules is to prevent clubs from benefiting from commercial agreements or cost reductions that do not reflect fair market value due to ties with associated parties,” stated the Premier League.
The vote today represented a crucial test of the league’s ability to enforce regulations that it believes are essential for maintaining competitive equity and fairness, ensuring that commercial agreements made by clubs with affiliated companies reflect fair market value and are not artificially inflated.
If seven or more clubs had opposed the league’s proposed changes and blocked the amendments, there was concern that state-affiliated clubs like Manchester City and Newcastle United could freely pursue increasingly lucrative sponsorship agreements, exacerbating wage inflation.
