Arsenal and Liverpool to escape liability for huge interest on owners’ loans after City’s legal case

Ruling declared it unlawful for borrowings from shareholders to be excluded from PSR calculations but this will only apply to future deals

Arsenal and Liverpool will escape immediate liability for millions in interest on loans from their owners despite Manchester City’s landmark legal case over Premier League rules governing them.
The ruling in City’s legal battle against regulations governing associated party transactions (APTs) declared it was unlawful for so-called “shareholder loans” to be excluded from the world’s richest league’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR).
The likes of Arsenal and Liverpool, who owe their owners £259 million and £137 million respectively, now face being beholden to commercial interest rates on such loans under those rules.
However, the Premier League has confirmed this will only apply to shareholder loans provided after the rules are changed in the coming weeks, sparing City’s title rivals an instant hit.
City, though, are understood to oppose plans to examine their existing sponsorship deals if tests are not done retrospectively on other clubs’ shareholder loans.
Chelsea, Everton and Leicester City – who have either previously failed or faced challenges complying with the Premier League’s PSR rules – are among the other clubs with large loans from their owners, which account for £1.5 billion of £4 billion in total borrowed by clubs.
The vast majority of such loans are interest-free and were not made subject to the same fair market assessment that applies to sponsorship deals like those City have with Etihad or First Abu Dhabi Bank after clubs voted against including them in the APT rules.
That will now have to change, with teams facing either being forced to pay commercial interest rates to their owners or having the theoretical equivalent figure added to their outgoings purely for the purposes of PSR.
The move could make it harder for clubs who take out shareholder loans in future to comply with those rules versus those, such as City and Newcastle United, with benefactors for whom money appears no object.
According to teams’ 2022-23 accounts, financially-stricken Everton’s shareholder loans total £451 million, although it remains to be seen how much of that could be written off or converted to equity if a planned takeover of the club goes through.
They and other sides are also allowed to deduct funds attributed to infrastructure projects, such as stadium builds, from the losses within PSR submissions.
Of the the remaining clubs with shareholder loans, Brighton and Hove Albion owe owner Tony Bloom £373 million, Arsenal’s equivalent loans stand at  £259 million, Chelsea’s at £146 million, Liverpool’s at £137 million, Leicester’s at £132 million, Bournemouth’s at £115 million, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ at £65 million, Brentford’s at £61 million, Crystal Palace’s at £38 million, Nottingham Forest’s at £23 million, Aston Villa’s at £10 million, and Fulham’s at £1 million.
Of the 20 clubs in the Premier League at the time, only City, Newcastle, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Southampton did not have any shareholder loans.
It remains to be seen whether the impending rule change will deter owners continuing to fund clubs via shareholder loans as opposed to through equity injections.