Now I know that many people – at the time West Ham signed Tevez and Mascherano and when news of how shady the deal was started coming out – predicted that West Ham would have to pay a heavy price for this deal.
But most of those predictions were based on West Ham being used as a showcase for the two talents and that in an year’s time, or even in 6 months time, the players would be sold on.
But did anyone seriously expect this?
West Ham have 14 days to respond to the FA’s charges – which, if you’re interested, go something like this:
“It is the board’s complaint that there were agreements in relation to both these transfers that enabled third parties to acquire the ability materially to influence the club’s policies and/or the performance of its teams in League matches and/or the competitions set out in Rule E10.
“The board’s view is this constitutes a breach of rule U18.
“Furthermore at the time of the transfer agreements for both Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, and until 24 January 2007, West Ham failed to disclose the third party agreements to the Premier League and/or deliberately withheld these agreements from the Premier League.
“The board’s view is this constitutes a breach of rule B13, which states ‘In all matters and transactions relating to the League each club shall behave towards each other club and the League with the utmost good faith’.
“West Ham United has 14 days within which to respond to these charges.”
To summarise:
Breach of rule B13 means that West Ham refused to share info about the deal with the Premier League.
Breach of rule U18 – of agreeing to a transfer that allowed a third party (MSI) to influence club policies and performances on the pitch.
Very, very serious allegation, that second one. It basically accuses West Ham of listening to MSI in terms of team selection – something that had been suspected from the beginning but denied by Pardew and West Ham.
How will West Ham respond? I said it before, and I say it again – Magnusson made a mistake when he bought West Ham.
The fans, though, have done nothing wrong, and definitely don’t deserve this. Then again they don’t deserve the drivel served up by the current West Ham squad on the pitch either, so I suppose it’s a fitting, if dramatic and overdone, twist to West Ham’s horror second season.
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