Manchester City have seen fundamental difference with rivals
Irwin Kishner, co-chair of Herrick's Sports Law Group, was quoted in an article in the Manchester Evening News on Manchester City's challenge to the Premier League's Assocation Party Transaction rules and the upcoming hearing on whether the newly-imposed regulations are anti-competitive. According to the article, Manchester City is in favor of less regulation and more freedom, but reportedly have little support from other Premier League clubs.
The article further notes that 16 clubs voted to put this to a further analysis vote, with Manchester City one of the minority clubs voting against it.
"It's interesting. It depends on the league and the sport as to how it would be monitored but certain leagues have revenue shares," explained Irwin. "In baseball you have revenue sharing where the big teams that have a lot of revenue and spend a lot of money on salaries get taxed on it and that tax goes to the smaller market clubs. Basketball has similar rules as does hockey."
"We could talk about football or baseball but there are absolutely fair play rules in the US so that you do try to equalize the big clubs, the haves and the have nots and condense that so there is competition and some kind of parity among the leagues. Certain leagues do better than others because of the way they are structured."
"Football has media rights shared equally between all 32 clubs so very often you will see smaller market clubs competing with bigger market clubs. Some bigger market clubs - the New York Jets, for example - haven't won a championship in over 50 years. It's worked."
"Other sports haven't done it quite to that level because there are different rules regarding the nationalization of media rights but they're always wary of creating a monolith or a super league within the league."
The article further discusses the upcoming hearing and whether it will move towards a free trade approach or be confirmed as the "increasingly protectionist mode."
"One of the tenets of all leagues is that you want to have competition. You don't want some big-market club able to outspend smaller-market clubs in resources and presumably get the better players. That creates dynasties which are sometimes fun to watch but if it's always a lop-sided contest it makes it a lot less fun," said Kishner.
Read the full article in the Manchester Evening News here. Access may require a subscription.