Tev told: Fight for freedom!
That was the sensational message last night, as the row
over his future intensified and the European Parliament prepared to
get involved.
United are refusing to pay the £26million fee demanded
by a consortium led by Kia Joorabchian, who owns Tevez.
And Chris Heaton-Harris, president of the EU’s powerful
Sports Intergroup which deals with sporting matters across the
continent, insisted there was nothing to stop the Argie striker
going his own way.
East Midlands MEP Heaton-Harris is an influential
figure in Brussels on sports issues and admitted he has been
shocked by the Tevez saga.
He told SunSport: “It is unique and bizarre that an
entity, rather than a club, owns a player.
“In employment terms, Carlos Tevez has a contract
himself with this company. But if he went to the European
Commission and said he wanted out of it, he would get European
support.
“It is just an employment contract. You can’t keep a
person to a contract that he doesn’t want to continue in.
“Under European law, he has the right to break this
contract.”
There is, of course, no evidence that Tevez wants to
break from his owners or Joorabchian, who is also his adviser.
They agreed a loan deal with United two years ago. It
had the proviso that, if United wanted to keep the player, they
would have to pay £26m for him.
United have not exercised that option, so Joorabchian
and his consortium say that it is time to look elsewhere.
Sources close to the player insist he does not want to
stay at the club and that he is happy for his ‘owners’ to decide
what his future should be.
But United boss Alex Ferguson disputed this on
Wednesday night, insisting Tevez wanted to remain and the club had
made him a new offer.
SunSport revealed on Wednesday how Tevez’s contract
with his owners could contravene European labour rules.
We explained how the argument made by Jean Marc Bosman
in 1995, which radically changed football’s transfer system, could
be applied to Tevez’s situation.
And United themselves have been exploring possible
legal loopholes in the third-party ownership clause of Tevez’s
contract. Heaton-Harris added: “Bosman was tied to a football club
and Tevez is tied to a company. There is very little difference. It
is a simple follow-on from Bosman.
“The football authorities have been amazingly slow to
understand the problems that this sort of arrangement causes.
“They could have sent this to the European Commission
long ago but chose to sit on their hands and this is what has
happened as a result.
“If the FA and UEFA had come to us with this problem in
the first place, there would have been none of these contracts and
it would have been job done.”
Tevez grabbed an amazing equaliser in the 2-1 victory
against Wigan with a clever backheel flick and Wayne Rooney has
joined the
fans clamouring for the Argie to be signed up on a
permanent deal at Old Trafford.
Rooney said: “Carlos scored a fantastic goal to get us
level. He is a world-class player and you always want to see those
sorts of player at your club. He is great to play with. He has a
lot of energy and has scored some vital goals for us. His work-rate
is brilliant and, hopefully, he will sign to stay with us.
“But I don’t know what is happening behind the scenes.
It is hard to say what will happen.
“His English isn’t very good but he’s a great lad and
it is great to have him in the camp.”
The match-winner at Wigan, Michael Carrick, added his
call for Tevez to stay.
He said “We want to keep the squad together as much as
we can.
“It is great here and we still haven’t peaked, so it
would be nice to keep together.
“Obviously, Carlos is a top player and the fans love
him as well. It is not so much the number of goals he scores but
the importance of them.
“His goal against Wigan was a classic case of that. He
came on, scored and got us back in the game.
“Hopefully, he can score a few more over the next
couple of weeks.”
