The embattled Manchester City seemingly facing serious hurdles that can determine their success in future football matches have found hope. On Monday, October 7th, soccer media announced that the team has won a landmark ruling versus the Premier League that once blocked some sponsorship deals of Man City, accusing them of being unlawful. Football score update platform Bongdalu is right at the center of this breaking news. 

However, it should be noted that the legal win is just partial and that Manchester City will continue to face trial for the other legal challenges it has met. How did this conflict between the team and the Premier League start? What is the importance of these deals? Let’s find out.

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First, a recap of the breaking news. An independent panel overseeing the two groups found that it is the Premier League and its rules on commercial deals between football clubs that are breaking competition law in specific ways, and not Manchester City, as the former previously accused. Thus, Man City has claimed legal victory, albeit partial. 

Manchester City challenged some of the regulations on the rulebook of the Premier League. Those regulations were about Associated Party Transactions, which you will know about a little later. The team also appealed on the rejection of two of its important sponsorship deals. 

In the rules of the Premier League, the highest level of the English football system, requires all clubs, together with their players, managers, and senior officials to run dealings with “associated parties.” Associated parties pertain to companies or individuals who have major interests or stakes in the club in discussion, financially or otherwise. It is the responsibility of the Premier League board to carefully review each transaction, each deal, and assess whether they represent a fair market value. 

Vividly reviewing all angles, the independent panel ruled in favor of Manchester City, saying that shareholder loans – or shareholders and associated parties lending to and borrowing money from the football clubs they own and manage – should never be excluded from Premier League’s rules. 

The panel also sided with Man City that claimed and argued that the updated version of the Associated Party Transactions rules, which took effect in February 2024, were against the law. Moreover, they also considered the understaffed Premier League that time taking several months to reach its decision on the cases a mistake. Another good news. The rest of the claims of the City versus the Premier League were also dismissed. 

The Timeline: How Did The Conflict Start?

The Premier League and Manchester City were in perfect terms until recently. Let’s look at how everything started. 

• What came to the Premier League’s mind when they thought of investigating the financial activities of Man City from 2009 to 2018, starting in March 2019. The former scrutinized how the latter reported their revenues from sponsorships, and how they paid their players and managers.  
• In February 2023, Manchester City faced multiple charges, 100 in particular, for allegedly breaching financial guidelines, from Premier League’s investigation. 
• More than a year later, in June 2024, Manchester City responded to the Premier League’s accusations as they filed a legal challenge against the English football authority. Interestingly, it took over a year to seek overturning the League’s Associated Party Transactions’ rules, which basically required commercial deals to be independently assessed for their fair market values. For Man City, those rules were “unlawful” and hindered how they do business. They also sought damages. 
• Despite the long months of waiting before responding back, it only took a few months before a legal decision was made. Recently, as Bongdalu reported earlier in this piece, Manchester City partially won the legal battle, allowing them to bypass the League’s rules for the best of their business. 

Why Sponsorship Deals Are Important In Football

The two sponsorship deals the Premier League questioned as they found they were “unlawful,” breaking their rules, and not fair, were Manchester City’s partnerships with First Abu Dhabi Bank and the Etihad Aviation Group.

These deals were unfairly blocked, the panel has ruled out, and while the Premier League’s investigations were initially valid, the panel believed the League did not provide the City every information used for its decision, hindering the City to respond. 

These partnerships were some of the most major not just for English football but for the rest of the world. 

In 2020, First Abu Dhabi Bank, one of the leading banks in the United Arab Emirates, a country that has strong ties with the football world, has partnered with Manchester City to become its official affinity credit card bank partner. 

Then, several years back, Manchester City struck a deal with the Etihad Aviation Group, which oversees Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the UAE. Part of the deal was the official renaming of Man City’s stadium to “Etihad Stadium,” where several football games are played until today. Note that this deal isn’t something new as the Etihad brand has since been present on the uniforms of football players from various teams worldwide. 

In spite of not being found with issues, Manchester City also has other remarkable sponsorship deals, such as those with PUMA, OKX, Asahi Super Dry, Nexen Tire, Nissan, Emirates Palace, and more. 

Sponsorship deals, though not a primary source of revenue for football clubs, are very important to be present as it connects football with the world of business, then, of course, with the avid fans. Even the world’s biggest events and most in-demand products sign sponsorship deals. 

Conclusion: ‘Big Victory’

This decision, although still partial, will shift perspectives on how the team will play its future games, which were previously seen bleak since they faced the legal battle. 

“This is a big victory. We have won. The rules were unlawful, and we were right to take this action,” Manchester City told the media. 

The Premier League also released an official statement following the ruling. They were humble to say they welcomed the findings, but said they will continue to operate and implement their rules, yet taking into account the findings.