Agents and Hammers heading for court battle
Matt Scott
Friday July 6, 2007
The Guardian
Carlos Tevez's move to Manchester United is in doubt after the Premier League last night ordered that West Ham United must receive his transfer fee.
The Premiership champions expected to conclude a deal for Tevez once his international duties at the Copa América in Venezuela are fulfilled, with the Argentina forward joining their squad during their tour of the US in the middle of this month. But the league's intervention has left West Ham and Tevez's agents on a collision course to the courts.
West Ham had been prepared to let Tevez go to Old Trafford without receiving a fee but have been forced to reposition themselves. "As far as we are concerned any deal to take Carlos Tevez away from West Ham has to be done directly with the club," said a Premier League spokesman.
That is because the player's registration lies with West Ham and not with the offshore companies who had brought Tevez to the Premiership: Media Sports Investments and Just Sports Inc.
After being fined £5.5m by a disciplinary commission in April for illegally registering the player last August, the Hammers chose to rip up the third-party agreement that connected them to MSI and JSI.
That meant West Ham were effectively taking a £20m-plus-rated player as their own, despite never having paid a transfer fee. MSI and JSI refused to recognise West Ham's decision and instead prepared a path for the player to Old Trafford.
After the disciplinary commission, West Ham had the choice of renegotiating terms with the player's handlers, who are led by Kia Joorabchian, in a deal akin to that which took Javier Mascherano to Liverpool in January. But that would have been a potentially complex discussion and Tevez was needed in a relegation fixture at Wigan the next day. The most expedient route was to rip up the contracts.
That, however, appears to have stored up problems, and these were coming home to roost last night. MSI and JSI have retained the experienced sports lawyer Graham Shear to act on their behalf and a courtroom battle appears inevitable.
West Ham are bound by the terms of their undertakings in response to a letter sent to them by the Premier League on May 4. According to the transcript of the arbitration proceedings concluded on Tuesday, they agreed "to contend that the Tevez Agreement was invalid and unenforceable and, from the club's perspective, terminated, and the club would not perform in accordance with it".
This was interpreted by the Premier League as a commitment to treat any transfer of Tevez as being from West Ham and as having no consideration for the perceived rights of MSI and JSI. On that basis alone was Tevez permitted to continue playing for West Ham, scoring the goals that saved them from relegation.
The difficulty now for West Ham is that they must attempt to defend in court a situation that Sir Philip Otton, a former Lord Justice of Appeal, described in his arbitration judgment as probably not being "legally watertight".
The player's handlers insist the old agreements are still enforceable and that they entitled West Ham only to a one-year loan for Tevez. They claim any attempts to prevent his move to Old Trafford will be an actionable restraint of trade.
The only way West Ham and the companies Joorabchian represents may avoid the courts is if a negotiated settlement can be reached. The Premier League will permit the club to share a transfer fee with MSI and JSI but West Ham would have to secure a fair market rate for themselves before forwarding any surplus. But with Manchester United's directors seeking to pay only £6m to take Tevez on a two- season loan with a future option to make the deal permanent, that looks unlikely.
*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment