Oliver Millichap was recently interviewed by sports publication Off The Pitch on rules brought in by the Premier League relating to sponsorship deals.
Brought in late last year to govern related-party transactions, the new regulations mean deals worth over £1 million a year must be submitted to the Premier League for review.
This move aims to remedy concerns that relationships between clubs and related third parties could result in artificially inflated sponsorship deals above the market rate.
Oliver commented: “[The new rules are designed] to capture a range of circumstances where there is a nexus between the club and third party – with the degree of shareholding, control and influence important in establishing whether a third party is deemed an 'associated party' under the rules."
There is a general catch-all provision which allows the Premier League to request further information or documents from the club, player, manager or senior official at any time during the assessment process where the league considers it necessary in order to reach a decision.
Even though certain deals may be generally comparable, no two sponsorship deals are or will be the same – there will be different rights and obligations that are specific to that particular deal making it extremely tricky to directly compare the value of deals."
Read the full piece.