Newcastle keeps the cards “very close” while watching the Manchester City legal outcome with “interest.”

The Premier League’s sponsorship regulations were altered as a result of Newcastle United’s purchase, and Manchester City claims their competitors did this to “safeguard their own commercial advantages.”

Although Newcastle United has kept their options “very close to the vest,” they will be “interested” in the outcome of Manchester City’s legal battle.

After Manchester City contested the legality of the Premier League’s associated party transaction (APT) laws during a two-week arbitration case that was scheduled to conclude yesterday, football finance expert Kieran Maguire reached that conclusion. Manchester City has proposed that these regulations be implemented by eighteen competing teams in order to ‘protect their own financial advantages’ in the event that Newcastle takes over in 2021.

The regulations ensure all commercial deals with companies associated with clubs’ owners are independently assessed to establish they are of fair market value. They have since been tightened further this year to ‘enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the system’, which was the final straw for Manchester City, and led to this legal battle..

Manchester City, who deny 115 separate charges of breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, have claimed that their rivals have set out to limit deals from companies in the Gulf region to deliberately ‘stifle commercial freedoms of particular clubs in particular circumstances and, thus, to restrict economic competition’. Newcastle have wisely kept their counsel, but the outcome of the case could have huge ramifications.

“Because of the way the ATP rules are organised, you now have to go through a fairly administrative heavy and quite slow process before those deals can get approved,” Maguire told the BBC. “The sponsor might say, ‘Well, actually, look, we just want to sponsor a football club,'” which worries City if they are in a negotiation with them. We are not going to the Premier League to watch Manchester City. We’re going to the Bundesliga, La Liga, and Serie A to finalise the sale because, to be honest, there’s less red tape, less paperwork, and we can close the deal faster there.

“City feel that they are being discriminated against as are other clubs in similar positions to City and it’s fair to say that Newcastle United are watching this with very close interest. But, at the same time, Newcastle are keeping their cards very close to their chest.”