PREMIER LEAGUE COULD BLOCK TEVEZ MOVE
Carlos Tevez's transfer to Manchester United could be blocked by the Premier League in the ongoing confusion over who owns the rights to the forward.
Despite the player's own delight at the potential move - he described the prospect of playing for United as "spectacular" last night - the deal could be scuppered because of West Ham's promise to the Premier League that Tevez is their player.
'While United and West Ham began talks yesterday, the Tevez side are confident no money will have to be paid to West Ham to secure his registration. They believe his three-year contract lapsed along with West Ham's right to claim ownership when they terminated the third-party agreements in April,' reports the Daily Telegraph.
That will put them on a collision course with the Premier League, who announced last night: "As far as the Premier League are concerned Carlos Tevez is registered to West Ham and any potential deal taking him away from West Ham would have to be struck with the club."
The League's stance means that the Tevez move to Manchester United is far from sealed even if they have agreed a deal in principle with the player's representatives.
One possible avenue would be for West Ham to be paid a transfer fee and then agree a compensation figure with Kia Joorabchian for breaching contracts with his company Media Sports Investments (MSI) when the Hammers terminated third-party agreements following their £5.5million fine in April for breaching Premier League rules.
The League would want a substantial chunk of the transfer fee to remain at West Ham rather than it all be handed over to MSI in compensation, otherwise they could be accused of merely covering up the third-party agreements that have caused so much controversy. And that is likely to end up with Joorabchian taking them to court.
The difficulties centre on West Ham's actions at the time of the initial disciplinary commission into the affair in April. 'After being fined £5.5m,' reports The Guardian, '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.'
With the Premier League set to take a more active role in transfers in the aftermath of the Stevens Report, the situation could cause problems for West Ham. As the League have been assured that West Ham are now fully in control of the player, they will insist that any transfer fee is paid to the club.
That will then see Joorabchian and the MSI and JSI companies, who own the rights to Tevez, begin legal action.
'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."'
Tevez himself is keen to make the move to Old Trafford, contrary to some reports yesterday afternoon.
"For me, Manchester United will be a sensational destination and to be a member of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad will be absolutely spectacular," said the striker.
"My dream is to be an idol in English football and I can achieve this now."
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_2472776,00.htmlLooks like Man U won't be able to get the "clean" transfer they want.
