City’s case involves Associated Party Transactions, which refer to sponsorships that clubs sign with companies that have direct ties to their owners.
Case documents show that Everton sent a representative to act as a witness for City on the case.
Ex-Everton CEO Keith Wyness told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “I could understand Chelsea and Newcastle (also had representatives called by City as witnesses), certainly with Newcastle having the Saudi owners and Chelsea having access to pretty big funds in private equity.
“I was a bit more surprised about Everton. They obviously felt that the way that sponsorships were being valued was wrong.
“There may still be some aggravation from Everton against the Premier League, bad feeling against the way they were handled before (Everton received two points deductions after financial cases brought by the league last season).
“It may also be that they’re thinking: ‘Well, we want any new owner coming into Everton to have the flexibility to do more with these sort of sponsorship deals’.”