Newcastle United were represented by Nick De Marco in the club's takeover dispute with the Premier League and the KC has spoken out about some clubs being unable to 'fairly compete on a level playing field'
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Nick De Marco
Nick De Marco(Image: YouTube)
The barrister who represented Newcastle United in the club's takeover dispute with the Premier League has highlighted the 'unfairness' of clubs 'ganging up together' to create rules that restrain their rivals.
Nick De Marco, who also acted for Nottingham Forest and Leicester City in the clubs' PSR battles with the top-flight, has previously drawn attention to 'strange inconsistencies' in the regulations.
De Marco once said that the APT rules introduced following Newcastle's buyout were 'bound' to be declared 'unlawful' after a tribunal found the original set of regulations, which were in place between 2021 and 2024, were 'void and unenforceable' following a legal challenge by Manchester City.
The tribunal stated that the takeover was the 'catalyst for the consultation process' leading up to the APTs being introduced. The tribunal even heard that an unnamed executive contacted the Premier League on behalf of his club and 10 others to request that notice be given of a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions just five days after the takeover.
When cross-examined by Manchester City's legal team over two-and-a-half years later, this senior figure openly admitted that the Newcastle buy-out 'heightened' concerns and 'encouraged the clubs to seek action'.
Manchester City have since launched a fresh legal challenge against the updated rules, which remain in place, and De Marco has given his general take on what regulation in sport should look like at a time when the established order have a greater spending capacity compared to upwardly mobile sides like Newcastle, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.
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"I would hope that we would all agree that sporting rules should be transparent, objective, precise, non-discriminatory and proportionate and that decisions made by sports governing bodies should reflect those principles and other principles of legal certainty," the KC said at the Blackstone Chambers competition law sports law conference.
"But surely that should depend not on whether those rules have an effect on the object or the market, but on simply whether they are proportionate or fair.
"All the arguments that we are hearing about in competition law - interesting as they are and worth providing - miss that point in my view.
"We also have to look at restraint of trade and how that can be used but, again, that is designed with the individual as a focus and an individual's right to work as a focus.
"It doesn't address questions of unfairness in some football clubs, perhaps, ganging up together in order to create rules that restrain other clubs in their ability to fairly compete on a level playing field."
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