Manchester City slam ‘unfair’ treatment by Premier League as Liverpool links emerge

Manchester City are reportedly claiming “unfair treatment” over the Premier League’s use of Nielsen Sports data to assess its commercial revenue, figures from which have already been used by Liverpool.

Liverpool are closely monitoring the developments as City take legal action against the Premier League. The reigning champions are challenging the need for the rules on related party transactions, which were put in place to prevent club owners from artificially inflating the value of sponsorship deals.

The group that owns City Abu Dhabi claims that these regulations are unlawful and is seeking damages accordingly. Meanwhile, a separate date has been set for November this year to address allegations of financial violations amounting to 115 counts.

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The rules on related party transactions came into force in December 2021 following the acquisition of Newcastle United by the Public Investment Fund for Saudi Arabia. The rules aim to prevent clubs from overvaluing commercial deals with companies linked to their owners.

According to a report in the Guardian, City are unhappy with the use of Nielsen Sports to gauge their commercial revenue, despite the company’s position as a leading provider of analytics and data to sporting institutions across media measurement, fan insights and digital and social analytics.

Nielsen, which bills itself as the “leading source of global sports measurement and analysis”, has come under fire from Manchester City, who are angry that the US company’s data is being used to determine whether to pursue a case at the Etihad.

Liverpool have already used Nielsen’s influential data to assess TV audience analytics for the 2022/23 Champions League matches. The company’s figures were cited in Liverpool’s latest financial announcements in February, claiming the Reds had been the most-watched team in the world for the past five years.