While City’s hearting into their 115 Premier League charges rumbles on, they have also been in a battle with the top flight over Associated Party Transaction Rules (APT). A vote on potential rule amendments had been due to take place, involving all 20 clubs, at a meeting on Thursday.

However, said amendment was pulled from the schedule. Sources have told the Daily Mail that the vote was pulled ‘at the last minute’.

City took on the Premier League over the associated party transaction rules back in June. The club claimed the APT rules are unlawful, but the findings of the two-week hearing into the matter have yet to be made public, though City were earlier said to be confident of victory.

Associated Party Transactions relate to commercial revenue clubs bring in from companies with connections to the club. As noted over the summer by Sky Sports, an example would be City’s front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with Etihad, who have connections to the club’s owners.

The rules in question surround ‘fair market value’ assessments in relation to such transactions. City have fought the rules on the basis that they are anti-competitive and “‘deliberately intended to stifle commercial freedoms of particular clubs in particular circumstances, and thus to restrict economic competition”.

The planned Premier League vote was intended to amend the existing rules. However, as noted by the Mail, there would theoretically be no point in making amendments to rules which are set to be tweaked – or even scrapped – regardless of what took place in this week’s clubs’ meeting.

APT rules were introduced following Newcastle United’s Saudi takeover in 2021. However City’s 165-page claim for damages appears to argue, among other things, that the rules do not fall in line with UK business law.

The hearing into City’s 115 charges continues to rumble on in the background, away from the APT discussion. The findings from that are not expected until later in the Premier League season, and there is still potential for an appeal to follow further down the line.

The Premier League has racked up significant legal expenditures in recent years – not only in relation to dealings with City, but also with the PSR cases which saw Everton and Nottingham Forest docked points last season. Costs are understood to have been sent to clubs in advance of Thursday’s meeting.

Other subjects on the schedule for Thursday’s meeting included VAR decisions from the season so far. Tony Scholes, the Premier League’s chief football officer, was scheduled to give a presentation on refeeeing and VAR data as well as an update on the potential roll-out of semi-automated offside technology before the end of the current campaign.