Since 1992, the Premier League has channelled its wealth into the elite players, coaches and clubs of English football.
However, for as long as it has existed, the league leaders have struggled for the publicity and competitive balance on which their good fortune is based.
Competition is its essence, predictability a mortal enemy.
Unlike Germany or Spain, the league has never been governed by one or two clubs. The list of winners is long (only seven clubs have won the name in 32 seasons) but it has never seemed like a hegemony.
Until now.
Manchester City’s recent good fortune has clinched its fourth consecutive title, a record not only for the Premier League but also for the English football league’s 140-year history.
City won the league with just two points, and they might point to Manchester United having won seven of the top 10 Premier Leagues, but that’s close enough to complete the dominance of why for several years the league has legislated to ensure that good fortune is based on sporting merit rather than monetary power.
But now Abu Dhabi state owners must also push themselves off the pitch, suing the league (i. e. its 19 warring parties) to overturn regulations designed to restrict the monetary strength they have adhered to.
What is the reason for the dispute?
At the heart of the dispute are the rules regarding “related-party transactions” (APTs).
Introduced in December 2021, following the acquisition of Newcastle United by the Saudi state, APTs govern agreements made to obtain advantages from a club through corporations with the same owner.
Their goal is to prevent owners from expanding their club’s profits through their competition on the open market.
Any advertisement or marketing agreement, or transfer of players between clubs of the same owning organisation (City Football Group has thirteen clubs on six continents) will have to have a “fair market value”, and the clubs will have to prove that they are.
In the case of City, the most obvious APT is the blouse and stadium agreement with Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned airline.
Newcastle has a Saudi company on its shirt, the occasion company Sela, while Chelsea has a shirt deal with Infinite Athlete, a recreational company in which Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have a stake.
The city now wants to remove this restriction, claiming that APTs are contrary to English festival law.
If they succeeded, they would be free to blow up the league’s already tense industrial balance and, more fundamentally, the complicated but important consensus on which their good fortune rests.
How the league works
Since its inception, the Premier League has been governed by majority rule, skillfully established in 14 out of 20 clubs with the classic ‘big six’ influence.
This makes the 20 club presidents gathered today for their two-day annual general meeting in Harrogate, close allies and fierce competitors. Each club has its own problems, but in combination they make up the most watched and observable festival in world football. .
The representatives of the city will take their seats after having declared war on this democratic model.
Reportedly, their lawsuit claimed that the Premier League has “the tyranny of the majority,” a word that can only be used directly through an owner who is a high-ranking member of an authoritarian monarchy.
The club has not commented on the matter, but has long maintained that league regulations prohibit newcomers from attempting to compete with established players.
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They could simply argue that Manchester United has had decades to build their advertising good fortune on years of good fortune, while Chelsea have managed to grow the club through Roman Abramovich’s unlimited loans.
Having promoted the most sensible at a high speed, they now need to leave the others behind, a move that may ultimately allow only similar clubs subsidized through sovereign wealth to compete.
To get a sense of what that looks like, look no further than Paris, where Qatar leveraged its ownership of PSG to achieve predictable and grim dominance of Ligue 1.
Another explanation for why for a legal challenge?
Possibly there was also a reason.
City has been litigating with the league for more than two years on 115 charges of breaches of rules, largely financial. If proven, they would constitute systematic abuses punishable by fines, deduction of points or even retroactive withdrawal of trophies.
If any of the league’s regulations are found to be illegal, it could weaken or invalidate others and leave City’s lawyers to navigate.
There is a theory that this action is a sign of desperation. As one senior football official said: “This is your Hail Mary. “
Whatever the truth, it makes life more complicated for the Premier League’s legal team, whose budget, according to The Times, has quadrupled to £20 million just by fighting in the City case.
All of this poses a monumental challenge for Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive who has faced enormous turbulence since Richard Scudamore took over, just as a new generation of wealthier foreigners was attracted to England’s foreign clubs.
No wonder he didn’t come to the Etihad to present the trophy last month.