Kia Joorabchian and Sheffield United are working together
against West Ham and the Premier League, in a bid to overturn what
they see as the injustice of the Carlos Tevez affair.
Significantly, Joorabchian has drawn to Sheffield United's
attention a document dated 1 December 2006, reputed to be an
amendment to the player's original contract made after West Ham had
been acquired by their new owners.
Joorabchian is co-operating with Sheffield United because he is
unhappy that the Premier League made him pay West Ham £2m before
allowing Tevez's transfer to Manchester United and because he is
thought to be under pressure from the financial backers of his MSI
organisation. As predicted in Observer Sport on 6 May, Sheffield
United started legal action against West Ham this week, seeking
millions of pounds in compensation for their relegation from the
Premier League.
West Ham escaped a deduction of points by a Premier League
commission in part because the fault was seen to lay with the
previous owners of the club. In a letter been seen by Observer
Sport, Kevin McCabe, the Sheffield United chairman, has written to
Richard Scudamore, the league's chief executive, with the new
evidence. McCabe believes it shows that the original judgment was
crucially flawed.
McCabe wrote: 'We were particularly astonished to learn Mr Tevez's
owners did not rely on contracts disclosed... to the Premier League
in January. Instead Tevez's owners produced an entirely different
agreement, which they say was signed by West Ham on 1 December 2006
- after West Ham had been acquired by its new owners. The
importance of a third party agreement executed by West Ham's new
owners cannot be overstated.'
McCabe then claims this shows that Eggert Magnusson, the new West
Ham chairman, 'misled' the commission into believing 'they had come
to the affair with clean hands'. West Ham were unavailable for
comment when The Observer attempted to put these claims to the
club.
