Simon Jordan drops Arsene Wenger comment in Man City APT verdict as Arsenal set for huge vote

Pundit Simon Jordan has criticised both Manchester City and the Premier League for their communication between each other amid the Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules row.

The top-flight clubs including Arsenal are set to meet up on Friday (November 22) to hold a vote on the APT rules though City have lobbied to have further revisions made and the matter settled at a later date. City have also been backed by Aston Villa who have written a letter to the Premier League to ask for the vote to be cancelled.

This comes after City claimed victory in a landmark commission ruling in October. It was concluded that some of the rules were found to be unlawful and some elements of the framework breached EU competition law. Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan meanwhile, has shared some of his thoughts on the matter and football.london has taken a look at everything he had to say.

He said: "You can't have clubs writing to the league the way that Manchester City are, the tone and texture. Even by people that support Man City like Stefan Borsan will acknowledge the fact that the texture and tone Man City are writing to the Premier League and in fact the way that the Premier League are responding is not in keeping with the nature of the relation that should exist.

"Because the Premier League board is there to serve the clubs and the clubs are shareholders in this entity. This confrontational attitude and outlook, is not great, not particularly productive, but it is where it is. And people will suggest that's because Manchester City have been attacked by the Premier League and there's a conspiracy of a cartel that want to keep them down.

"UEFA are part of it and now the Premier League are part of it - nothing to do with the fact that maybe, if Man City cooperated a little bit more and made transparent response to allegations, then there wouldn't be so much perspective around what Man City are and what Man City aren't.

"I think there's a resistant to the idea that new money can buy its way to the top of the tree and upset the cartel. I didn't believe it was what PSR were brought in for but I believe now that is what it was brought for and ultimately, I've changed my position slightly. I thought it was a force for good, having been an owner, subject to the pressures of fan and media demand, to keep emptying more money into a football club with no control and no governance.

"I felt the PSR gave it that, it doesn't, hasn't. What it has done is, it's created a landscape which football is sadly now constantly in a situation where new clubs can't assume the opportunity.

"The trap's door been pulled behind and the last ones off the wreck were Man City and Newcastle, as a club are suffering as a result of it. These APT rules are either lawful or they're not. The problem is, is that likely, the drafting, the construct of these rules at the time, they were fit for purpose.

"But as society evolves and the commerciality and the expectations of football changes, given the ownership models we've got, I spoke to Arsene Wenger the other day and the thing he was saying was that the fans haven't changed, the players haven't changed, the managers' haven't changed, the only thing that's changed in football is the owners.

"Now, I don't agree with that, there’s some of that that’s right, because the ownership models when you’ve got hedge funds, giant corporations, billionaires and nations states as now the staple diet of ownership models, you aren’t going to get away with doing things on the hoof that aren’t thought through for all the permutations and all the changes to football.

"So Man City are right. I actually believe that there’s an argument to be made that the entirety of football is anti-competitive because the Premier League itself is anti-competitive. How can you have a pyramid in this country where you’ve got 92 football clubs and 91 percent of all the revenue goes to 20 clubs? That by its very definition is anti-competitive."

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