Tighter restrictions on associated party transactions passed just as PIF look to buy Serie A giants

Manchester City have their legal team on standby after it was revealed that the Premier League are to push ahead with controversial rule change.

Despite not gaining the 16 votes required to pass, the Premier League look set to tighten up rules on associated party transactions, meaning any deals between clubs which share an owner and any sponsorship deals between football clubs and companies associated with the club's owners will be heavily scrutinised, possibly even blocked.

This will massively affect Manchester City who have a network of clubs under their City Group umbrella, but also, it could massively hinder Newcastle United's progress. The PIF recently bought controlling stakes in four Saudi Pro League clubs, the PIF have their fingers in practically every big business there is, so any sponsorship deals we enter into are all going to be looked at in great detail. Newcastle will essentially be blocked from making money.

Man City aren't taking it lightly, nor should Newcastle

Manchester City have warned the Premier League that they will challenge the ruling in court if they push ahead, especially in light of the fact that the majority vote required for it to pass was not met. Hopefully, Newcastle will stand by their side in this fight.

If you will join me in donning your tinfoil hat for a moment, this all feels very heavily aimed at Newcastle United, even with Manchester City being another side massively affected.

Essentially, as far as City is concerned they're trying to shut the gate after the horse has bolted, but for us, we're just getting started and all of these new rules seem to have popped up very quickly after we became the club with the richest backers.

Newcastle could be getting an impressive sibling

Now, to add insult to injury, the PIF are reportedly launching a bid to by AS Roma in Italy. The Daily Mail has said that the PIF will stump up £768million for the Serie A side, and also have £256million set aside to help fund a new stadium.

Roma and Newcastle could have partnered up and made transfers between the two clubs infinitely easier to negotiate, but now with the associated party transaction rules back on the table, we're unlikely to get any benefit from being associated with one of the top teams in Italy.

The Premier League really are trying to do all they can to stop anyone breaking into that holy sextet.