We can go back and forth on West Ham, Premier League, Tevez and Manchester United all day, but instead of rehashing things I want to ask the well-informed Soccerlens readers some key questions.
Before that happens though, a couple of observations:
- The Premier League will move to protect the validity of their earlier rulings before considering player welfare, club welfare or civil laws. In that scenario, the Premier League will not – can not – accept that Manchester United are dealing directly with Kia and Tevez.
- West Ham are in a double bind. If they are reneging on their agreement with Kia and MSI they open themselves to prosecution and the excuse that “the former owners did this” is not going to float – it’s a business, and the business is liable.
If West Ham let go and allow Tevez to join Manchester United without taking a transfer fee (they are entitled a fee from MSI, as the initial contracts state), they have then accepted that they did not own his economic registration and that will get the Premier League to bust their asses back to the Championship (if they won’t they will open a big can of worms and this time Sheffield United will actually have a case).
- The only difference right now between the Mascherano transfer to Liverpool and the proposed Tevez move to Manchester United is the 27 April Premier League hearing where West Ham were fined for lying to the PL and for violating rule U18. If that’s it, this seems to be a case of the Premier League covering its ass.
Ok, on to the questions:
#1: Why is it so bad for third-parties (read corporations) to own football players?
#2: Can you please point out that section of the Premier League rules where it explicitly or implicitly states that non-club player ownership is ‘not acceptable’?
#3: If West Ham have ‘reneged’ on their agreement with MSI and assumed economic rights for Tevez, doesn’t that hold them liable to a very big lawsuit? Couldn’t MSI sue West Ham to the tune of 20-30m pounds?
Or, put another way, if someone borrowed your car and later, to save his ass from his company boss, claimed (with legal documentation) that the car was his, wouldn’t he be opening himself up for a ass-whopping legal case?
#4: Can West Ham simply cancel Tevez’s registration and and make him a ‘free’ agent, allowing him to join Manchester United?
#5: What exactly was the Mascherano deal between Liverpool, West Ham and the Premier League? Shouldn’t that be re-examined as well?
Looking forward to your answers.