Why Man City vs Premier League court ruling will HURT Liverpool

One outcome of Manchester City’s court case against the Premier League will hurt Liverpool. Here’s why that’s happening.

Manchester City and the Premier League both celebrated victories of sorts on Monday as a judge ruled on the club’s case against the league. We got statements from both Man City and the Premier League claiming they’d got what they wanted – posturing, essentially, ahead of the bigger case down the line.

But this case did have an outcome that will affect things. It was ruled that the Premier League’s methods to judge sponsorship contracts were unlawful, something that actually opens the door for City – and others – to claim costs and missed income against the league.

There was also a decision on ownership loans. 14 Premier League clubs owe payments to their owners, with many of those being completely interest fee and without a deadline.

However, it has been decided that such loans should be worked into Premier League spending rules. As things stand, they’re not, but that will almost certainly now change.

There’s potential, per The Times, for commercial loan rates to be used on interest-free loans in order to balance the playing field. Basically, clubs will need to include these payments in their losses for each season.

And that will affect Liverpool.

Liverpool’s ownership debts

Liverpool are not in tremendous debt to their owners. Again per The Times, they owe around £71m and that puts them at the 7th-highest in the Premier League.

It’s under half of fourth-placed Chelsea (£146m), however, and a long way behind Arsenal (£259m) and Brighton (£373m). And, well, Everton are in trouble here (£451m).

But the Reds will almost certainly need to include those debt repayments – and any potential interest – in their PSR filings going forward. It will be a hit to what they’re allowed to spend, and it will limit things a little.

Of course, things could be far, far worse. This is a negative outcome, though, and it’ll hurt Liverpool at least a little.