Daniel Levy: Man City verdict taken far too long and multi-club needs controls
Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy has called for a swift conclusion to Manchester City’s legal battle with the Premier League, saying the process “has gone on for far too long”.
Less than two weeks before the start of a new top-flight season, more than 100 charges that City breached financial rules remain unresolved, despite an arbitration hearing ending last year.
City have consistently denied allegations that they disguised funding from their owners as commercial income, made off-book payments to employees and failed to cooperate with the investigation.
“I think it would be really unfair of me to talk about another club in the Premier League,” said Levy. “All I would say is that it’s going through a process which I think has gone on for far too long. It needs to be brought, for the good of the game, to a conclusion one way or another.”
Levy also called for tighter rules on multi-club ownership. Tottenham remain one of an increasingly small number of top-flight teams who aren’t part of such networks.
Notable examples include Manchester City and City Football Group, Chelsea and BlueCo, Liverpool and Fenway Sports Group, and Newcastle United and PIF.
“Multi-club ownership is another issue that is very important today, because it really didn’t exist five years ago,” Levy told The Overlap, sponsored by Sky Bet.
“The idea that one club is involving lots of different clubs, with the money involved today, must be controlled carefully.
“We have financial control measures, and it can be abused. It worries me a little because there’s so much money in the game now, and you only need one owner to do something inappropriate, and it would impact confidence from sponsors and broadcasters in the European game. It needs to be very tightly controlled.”
Levy: Let’s see cost of regulator in 10 years
Levy called associated party transactions “one of the biggest threats” to the game. City forced the Premier League to amend its APT rules with a successful challenge last year.
“That’s the area that has to be controlled because if you end up having clubs that are owned by states, which I have no issue with, they can do deals with themselves and that puts them in a competitive advantage over everybody else. That’s an area that must be looked at.”
Levy said he was “not in favour of, but we have to accept and embrace” the independent football regulator. He added: “Let’s come back here in 10 years’ time and see what the cost is.”