West Ham United are set to pick up a multi-million-pound
windfall if they sell Carlos Tevez this summer, a situation which
is bound to infuriate the "gang of four" clubs who continue to
contest the striker's right to play in the Premiership. On a day
when the Tevez affair took on an international angle with the
presidents of both Fifa and Uefa stepping into the dispute, it
emerged that, under the terms of his four-year playing contract,
only West Ham will benefit from the forward's sale. Sepp Blatter
and Michel Platini would doubtless be dismayed that the prospect of
yet another legal wrangle has now been raised, this time between
the club and the offshore companies that brought Tevez to Upton
Park.
This is because the only document relating to West Ham that remains
legally enforceable from the complicated sheaf of paperwork that
dictated the terms of Tevez's arrival in London last August is his
playing contract. That means he is West Ham's player and that the
club alone would be due any fee from his sale. The offshore
companies are understood to retain commercial contracts with the
Argentinian player. These would permit the companies to sue for
damages in a commercial court if West Ham refused to pay them a
consideration for any transfer fee they received - and with Real
Madrid linked with a £30m bid for Tevez, that could be
considerable.
Such contracts between the player and third-party companies are
perfectly legal under the Premier League rule U18 that led to £3m
of the £5.5m fines imposed on West Ham last month. This is because
the rule governs the conduct of clubs, not of players. In any case,
third-party contracts governing players' image rights and so-called
"escape clauses" allowing certain bids to trigger a player's
release are commonplace in the Premiership. Beyond national
borders, the involvement of third-party companies in player
ownership is widespread.
Blatter yesterday announced Fifa's intention to scrutinise the
verdict of the independent commission that found the Hammers guilty
of having breached Premier League rules over their signing of
Tevez. The Fifa president appeared willing to listen to the
complaints of the "gang of four" clubs - Sheffield United, Charlton
Athletic, Fulham and Wigan Athletic - who are aggrieved that West
Ham were not docked points, which might have condemned them to
relegation.
"We will look at this - and not only if we are asked, we will do it
anyway," said Blatter. "We will ask for the file once it has been
decided how and why the decision was made. If we feel something was
wrong in this decision then we have to open our file. The matter is
linked with a club in Brazil - Corinthians - and with the ownership
of this club and the ownership of the two players [Tevez and Javier
Mascherano]. According to our files the transfer of Tevez was done
correctly according to the international transfer of players. We
have the right and the responsibility to see how such cases are
dealt with."
The Premier League responded in a statement: "We have implemented
our rulebook and processes to the letter in this matter and we are
more than happy to give Fifa any assurances or explanations they
need." Blatter's Uefa counterpart, Platini, said that although Fifa
is the international arbiter of player transfers, there are no
regulations governing third-party ownership of players. "When you
go to pick players from South America, they are not from the same
system, mentality or morality," said Platini. "In many countries
all over the world, players belong to companies or agents rather
than clubs.
"The Fifa congress has to put laws in place so that when a club is
buying a player they have to buy that player from one club and not
from companies or individuals." The Premier League took the lead on
the issue with its introduction of rule U18, which was the result
of "months" of debate according to one Premiership chief executive,
and the football world has only latterly woken up to what the
league considers a "disturbing development". The Football
Association and the Football League will also introduce a similar
rule before their international counterparts at their close-season
AGMs.
