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Manchester City remain confident that they were victorious in the recent ruling over the Premier League's Associated Party Transactions (APT).

City's argument against the top flight was that their principle of blocking certain sponsorship deals from brands owned by the club's ownership were illegal under the UK's competition laws. A ruling suggested that the Premier League's decision to block sponsorship deals with Emirates Aviation Group and First Abu Dhabi Bank were 'procedurally unfair' and that the APT rules and amended APT rules are unlawful because they exclude from their scope shareholder loans.

The Premier League argues that the ruling promotes the overall objectives, framework and decision-making of APT while City believe the ruling dismisses APT entirely. The Times reports that a 'greater earthquake' is on the way for the Premier League as more details are expected to be published by the panel of three judges which looked into APT.

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This means that it is premature to suggest that either side has truly triumphed in this case as of yet. The report does argue though that if the Premier League loses this battle, they can expect further legal challenges from City in the future while the verdict on the club's huge new deal with Etihad is still up in the air.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday evening, it emerged in The Times that City's legal challenge on APT was causing plenty of hostility in the Premier League. Clubs are thought to be outraged by an email City sent to them earlier this week with one of the newspaper's sources claiming it was 'bullying behaviour' from the Blues.

It has also emerged that Premier League chief executive Richard Masters had to cancel his golf day with Sky Sports and NBC executives, despite the latter flying in from the United States specifically for the event, to attend to the fallout from the APT ruling.