Premier League ditch emergency meeting called after Manchester City legal row | OneFootball

An emergency meeting called last week in light of a legal row involving Manchester City has now been postponed by the Premier League, new reports have revealed.

A decision had originally been taken to call such a meeting after a verdict from a bitter legal row between Manchester City and the Premier League revealed that two aspects of the associated party transaction (APT) rules had been deemed unlawful by a tribunal.

However, from the side of the Premier League, they had stated the tribunal rejected the majority of Manchester City’s challenges and “endorsed the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of the APT system”.

The battle between the pair had also seen the division’s clubs split over what side to take and it is now understood that all of Chelsea, Newcastle United and Everton acted as witnesses for Manchester City in the arbitration process.

Witnesses for the Premier League included Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Brighton and West Ham, whilst Brentford, Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves wrote letters in support of the rules.

In light of the verdict, the Premier League immediately called for an emergency meeting of all 20 clubs to discuss ramifications and what is next following the outcome on the Associated Party Transaction rules challenge from Manchester City.

However, according to the information of MailSport’s Mike Keegan, that meeting between the Premier League and its 20 clubs has now been ditched from this week’s schedule for those involved.

It is explained that two initial meetings – one with legal, and another with finance – to discuss the legal row with Manchester City over sponsorship rules have been postponed in the last 24 hours.

Clubs within the Premier League have reportedly been told that the planned meetings with the League’s Legal Advisory Group and the Financial Controls Advisory Group have now been cancelled.

The move from the Premier League has followed its CEO, Richard Masters writing to clubs warning that there could be delays to a process that he originally had said could be completed quickly.

Masters has also recently stated that the Premier League would be taking ‘the necessary time to develop our proposals and the associated draft rule amendments’ for Associated Party Transactions (APT) in the wake of Manchester City’s high-profile legal challenge.

Elsewhere, a petition demanding an immediate resignation from Richard Masters as Premier League chief executive officer has now exceeded 20,000 signatures, and has also been supported by Oasis legend and high-profile Manchester City fan, Noel Gallagher.