TedofChume
Well-Known Member
I think you're dead right.I don't believe it was either.
I do however think we voted for shareholder loans to be excluded to help lure the inept PL legal team into a bear trap that they jumped into with both feet.
The whole PSR case against City hangs entirely on Allegation 1 - that City inflated sponsorship deals with Associated Parties (ie Etisalat & Etihad) to being above FMV.
If
- excluding Preferential Interest Loans from the new APT transactions is unlawful,
then it stands to reason that
- excluding Preferential Interest Loans from the PSR rules is unlawful too,
However, despite this point being a fait acomplis, it hasn't been proven yet in any legal sense.
The point Simon Cliff was making in his letter to the Premier League and the other 19 clubs is that the judgement means the APT rules themselves are unlawful. End of. Any decisions or actions taken under them are therefore null and void. The Premier League has not realised or accepted this yet.
Again, it stands to reason, but hasn't been confirmed in court, that:
- The PSR rules are therefore unlawful too, and any decisions or actions taken under them are null and void too.
The arbitration panel assessing City's PSR case will have this point put to them by Lord Pannick et al.
So I think it is a hugely significant judgement.
Yet at the same time, it will probably have to be proven separately in court or at a tribunal. Who knows it could go the other way?