Aston Villa's stance explained as Man City's case against Premier League to start

Aston Villa will be looking on with interest as Manchester City take legal action against the Premier League for the next two weeks over tough sponsorship rules.

City's lawyers are bidding to overturn the league's Associated Party Transaction (ATP) rules in a private arbitration. The laws limit what companies can invest in a club if they have common owners and the move is said to have sparked a ‘civil war’ between top-flight clubs.

City believe the rules are unlawful and are seeking damages for revenue they have lost since the regulations were voted in. ATP rules regard commercial and sponsorship deals with companies owned or associated with the same club's owners. The rules say such transactions have to be independently assessed to ensure they are of fair market value. They were introduced to stop the inflation of commercial deals with companies also linked to the club’s owners, but The Times quote a 165-page legal document in which City argue they are the victims of "discrimination".

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They add that up to 12 Premier League clubs have so far agreed to provide witness statements or a letter in support of the Premier League’s defence. However, if City are successful with their claim, it 'could dramatically alter the landscape of the professional game', it is suggested.

That's because such a change will allow the champions and the Premier League’s other rich clubs to conduct sponsorship deals without independent assessment, therefore increasing the amount of money they can raise, leading to bigger transfer budgets to bolster their squads. City's sponsors currently include Etihad Airways, Etisalat and Experience Abu Dhabi - all linked in some way to the club's owners The Times also claims success in the case will also aid City's case against 115 financial fair play charges as some relate to the alleged inflation of sponsorship deals. That hearing is set to get underway in November.

"City feel the new rules are being introduced part-way during a season so haven't properly been costed out by the Premier League in terms of time or impact or unintended consequences," football finance expert Kieran Maguire said on the BBC. "They feel that they as a club are being targeted by a lobbying group of other clubs.

"City are probably the only Premier League club I'm aware of that have consistently said they want the independent football regulator because clearly they don't like the direction of travel coming from the Premier League. They want to protect their ability to be the most successful commercial organisation in the Premier League.

"They've overtaken Manchester United in the last couple of seasons and they feel that by targeting contracts with associated parties - and the Premier League rules appear to go further than UEFA and the accounting regulations themselves - this is giving them a competitive disadvantage and therefore it's a competition issue."

After qualifying for Champions League football last season, Aston Villa are increasing their revenue streams in a bid to catch up with the 'big six', who have been generating vast amounts of money for over a decade following Villa's failed attempts to reach the Champions League under Randy Lerner. A loosening of sponsorship rules could potentially allow them to operate with less pressure from the top-flight's spending rules.

Villa are said to have sympathy with City over tight spending rules because after qualifying for Champions League football Unai Emery faces the prospect of losing a player before the end of the month due to the strain caused by Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR). It's now wonder Villa feel like they're being punished for showing ambition.

The club's president of business operations, Chris Heck, recently spoke about how the club needs to boost revenue to allow Emery to continue improving his squad and therefore the chances of more success in the coming years.

"We have a real focus on tackling that problem [FFP], but it'll take a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of changes as we grow our business," he said on Villa TV. We use the analogy with FFP that we have a train which is the football side, and a train on the business side.

"The train on the football side is going lightning fast and that's a good thing. The business side has to catch that train. We're working around the clock trying to do sponsorship deals, changing the stadium to be beneficial to Financial Fair Play, find new revenue streams, take in our merchandise in-house and things of that nature."

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