EPL COULD FACE LEGAL ACTION
Relegated clubs would have an arguable claim against league for breaching their own rules
THE Premier League are likely to face legal action from relegated clubs if they decide to end the season now with the table as it stands.
An emergency meeting is being held this week as authorities discuss how the campaign will conclude after English football ground to a halt in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
All matches the top four divisions have been suspended until at least April 3 but it is increasingly unlikely that the leagues will be in a position to resume by then with government projections forecasting the virus to peak in May or June and seven Premier League clubs currently with players in isolation and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta testing positive for Covid-19.
If the season is unable to be completed then the Premier League must decide whether Liverpool are crowned champions and what happens to the clubs in the bottom three. Norwich, Aston Villa and Bournemouth currently sit in the relegation zone with the latter two only there on goal difference while Villa have a game in hand.
Should they be relegated, those three clubs could take action.
“It would leave the Premier League open to claims, in my view, from a relegated club in particular who would have an arguable claim against them on the ground that they have breached their own rules by ending a season before all the fixtures have been fulfilled,” James Severn, sports and litigation partner at Penningtons Manches Cooper.
“The Premier League rules set out what a season is. It is defined as ‘the period commencing on the date of the first league match on the fixture list of the League’s first team competition and ending on the date of the last’. That’s the season. It further says in the rules that the season is every team playing each other home and away.
“Rule C14 says that it is the bottom three clubs in the table at the end of the season who will be relegated. If the season hasn’t ended, what they would say is how can we be relegated? And the season hasn’t ended until the teams have played all their games.
“There is an agreement between the clubs, who are stakeholders in the Premier League company, and the Premier League as to how the competition will be run. The argument would be that we agreed to these rules, by terminating the season before it is finished, you have breached them. As a result of that breach we have suffered damage.”
If the Premier League decide to keep playing but delay the restart to the season, there will be further complications with out-ofcontract players. Contracts usually expire on June 30 but it is highly unlikely that the season will be completed by then, opening up the possibility of standoffs between players and clubs.
“What could theoretically happen is an out-of-contract Premier League player could decide that on June 30, he is going to go to move and finish the delayed Bundesliga season for RB Leipzig on good money. In reality, it is likely that would be prevented by the leagues and associations. The players and clubs will be looking to do short-term deals for the players they want.
“Clubs will be looking to secure an extra few weeks commitment from them in exchange for payment. Agents will probably have some fun with it.”