Premier League bosses have backed changes to club ownership rules that will make it easier to block potentially unscrupulous investors in the wake of controversies surrounding takeovers at Hull City and Southampton.
According to Sky News, the 20 club chairmen voted unanimously to approve changes to the Premier League's Owners and Directors Test at its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.
The move will have the effect of enhancing the league's ability to block new owners in a bid to preserve the integrity of the competition, which is watched by billions of people globally every season.
The chairmen had voted to give the Premier League "the power to impose such conditions as it sees fit in order to ensure compliance with PL Rules on finance, Owners and Directors Test, disclosure of ownership issues and associations and influence".
New “disqualifying events” in relation to the ownership test would include a failure to provide all relevant information, or the provision of false, misleading or inaccurate information about a prospective new owner's finances, according to the source.
For the first time, the Premier League's rules will also allow it to block a new owner where they have "engaged in conduct outside the UK that would constitute an offence… if such conduct had taken place in the UK, whether or not such conduct resulted in a conviction.”
Amendment to the rule book had been partly inspired by a move by Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng to take control of Southampton FC in a deal reported to be worth £200m.
Gao had admitted to bribery offences, but gave evidence for the prosecution in two separate cases, meaning that he escaped charges himself. Because he has not been convicted of an offence, the Premier League is understood to have had no existing grounds to block his bid.
There have also been growing objections to the number of clubs being bought by Chinese backers amid suggestions that there is a degree of opacity surrounding the ultimate ownership of some of those investors.
Roughly three-quarters of the 20 Premier League clubs are foreign-owned, including new champions Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United. While Aston Villa, Reading, Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion are among the prominent English clubs now owned by Chinese shareholders.
Source: SkySports
