Manchester City have won a legal battle against the Premier League's Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules, according to a new report.
City launched legal action against the Premier League over the now previous APT rules in June last year.
The rules stated that commercial deals involving clubs had to be assessed by the Premier League to be determined as being of 'fair market value'.
City, however, claimed that they had been the victims of 'discrimination' over the rules, and dubbed them as a 'tyranny of the majority'.
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In October, an independent arbitration panel found that the rules were 'unlawful'.
City's legal team were said to have won seven of their key arguments - although 'many' of their claims were rejected by the panel. They were reportedly only required to show that the rules were unlawful for one of their arguments.
The Premier League said in a statement that the tribunal had found 'the Rules are necessary in order for the League's financial controls to be effective'.
It added that the tribunal did 'identify a small number of discrete elements of the Rules which do not, in their current form, comply with competition and public law requirements', and stated that they would be proposing the necessary amendments to the regulations in due course.
The following month, top flight clubs voted 16-4 in favour of the amendments, with City being one of the clubs that voted against.
The reigning champions then launched further legal action against the Premier League in January over the amendments, with the league's chief executive Richard Masters stating that City were 'seeking a declaration that the amendments approved by clubs in November (and therefore the current APT rules in force) are unlawful and void'.
The Daily Mail's Mike Keegan now reports that an independent panel has now reached a final verdict on the legal action surrounding the previous APT regulations, ruling that they were unlawful 'in their entirety'.
It is claimed that any deals rejected or reduced in value under the system, which ran between December 2021 and November 2024, could be subject to 'hefty compensation claims' in the case of a club 'believing its competitive performance was harmed by a decision made under the previous APT system' - which, it is said, could throw the league 'into chaos'.
The verdict is not related to City's latest legal challenge against the amended rules voted through by clubs, which is yet to receive its own verdict.
It also has no relation to City's 115-plus alleged breaches of Premier League and UEFA financial rules.
A statement from within the final award ruling - which makes reference to the amended rules despite no verdict yet being reached in the case - reads (via the Daily Mail): "In the First Partial Final Award it was declared that the APT Rules and Amended APT Rules were unlawful in three respects.
"There now arises for decision the question whether those three respects can be severed from the remaining APT Rules so that those remaining APT Rules are valid and enforceable.
"The three respects in which the APT Rules and Amended APT Rules were unlawful cannot be severed with the result that the APT Rules as a whole are void and unenforceable."
The Premier League are yet to officially comment on the verdict, though its chief executive Richard Masters is said to have told clubs this afternoon: "The previous APT rules are no longer in place, and new rules were voted into force.
"The league has previously told clubs that this decision was about the legal status of previous APT rules and would not impact the operation of new rules."
SPORTbible has contacted the Premier League for comment.
Topics: Premier League, Manchester City
Ryan Smart