Newcastle United learn 'stacked' truth after Premier League make sponsorship rule change claim

The Premier League's updated sponsorship rules will achieve the 'exact opposite' of competitive balance because the regulations are 'stacked against' clubs like Newcastle United.

That is the view of football finance expert Kieran Maguire after 16 top-flight clubs voted through amendments to associated party transaction (APT) rules last week. Newcastle joined Manchester City, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest in standing against the proposals at a shareholders' meeting in London.

In a statement, the Premier League insisted the APT rules, which ensure all commercial deals with companies linked to a club's owners are independently assessed to establish they are of fair market value, were introduced to provide a 'robust mechanism to safeguard' the 'competitive balance' of the top-flight. However, Maguire suggested the result of these changes will be the 'exact opposite of that'.

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"Does it now mean that the Premier League is saying in order to allow us to have more rules stacked against the likes of Aston Villa, Manchester City and Newcastle, in order to have rules which make it more difficult for these clubs to have sponsorship, we want a competition which is going to discourage investment?" he told the Price of Football. "The whole thing is a mess and we're still awaiting the final judgement of the commission itself so you put that all together and it's a fairly sorry state of affairs.

"I've been monitoring Premier League meetings for years upon years and normally every vote would go through 20 to zero and even when it goes 19 to one, a few years ago, you would think, 'Oh yeah, that's a bit rebellious'. Now it's a 16 to four, which is a very resounding victory as far as the Premier League is concerned, but that's seen as being some sort of norm, which is evidence of the decaying relationship between clubs in the Premier League."