The emergency meeting between the Premier League and its clubs rocked by the recent dispute with Manchester City has been ditched.
Two initial meetings – one with legal and one with finance - to discuss the bitter legal row with Champions City over sponsorship rules have been postponed in the last 24 hours, Mail Sport has learned.
Clubs have been told that the planned meetings with the League's Legal Advisory Group and the Financial Controls Advisory Group have now been cancelled.
Under-fire Premier League officials had hoped for a speedy resolution after a tribunal concluded that key elements of the rules governing commercial deals between clubs and related companies were 'unlawful'.
Thursday's key meeting was left in serious jeopardy, and the heavyweight gathering has now been postponed.
It follows Premier League chief executive Richard Masters writing to clubs on Friday evening warning that there could be delays to a process that he initially said could be completed quickly.
Masters said the League would be taking 'the necessary time to develop our proposals and the associated draft rule amendments' for Associated Party Transactions (APT) in the wake of the City's legal challenge.
Only days earlier Masters had claimed in an email that the League can continue to operate its rules with changes that 'can quickly and effectively be remedied by the League and clubs'.
But City responded with an email by warning against a 'knee-jerk reaction' that 'would be likely to lead to further legal proceedings with further legal costs' in the wake of the arbitration hearing between City and the League that took place in June.
City's general counsel, Simon Cliff, also accused the League of 'misleading' clubs with 'inaccuracies' in their summary of a tribunal that found elements of the rules for APTs were 'unlawful', in particular in relation to the interest free shareholder loans that many clubs have and currently sit outside the rules.
Masters responded on Friday night, saying they 'are taking the necessary time to develop our proposals and the associated draft rule amendments for club consideration'.
'We will circulate these to clubs when fully considered and ready, which may impact on the scheduling of our planned meetings with financial controls and legal advisory groups, and all clubs next week,' he added.
There are expected to be follow-up talks as they try to reach a conclusion.
