BBC - 606 - - A24830264 - Will Tevez "legalise" Football?

1053 comments

Will Tevez "legalise" Football?

Premiership Manchester United

by jakebrother (U2040303) 16 July 2007

It appears to me as though the ongoing saga "surrounding" Carlos Tevez may well be the straw that finally breaks the camels' back!!

Currently we are led to believe that Tevez is "owned" by MSI, is registered to West Ham Utd and is desperate to move to Man Utd; who have an agreement in place with MSI.

To anyone else with a remote knowledge of ownership and business law, it seems relatively simple:

MSI own Tevez with a legally recognised agreement worldwide.
MSI have agreed to move Tevez to Man Utd as part of a long term loan, for which they will receive a payment comensurate with current football finances and fair for a player of Tevez' ability and stature (reputation wise!).

These are the only legally recognised agreements involved.

Any move is currently being held up by the Premier League, who are making non-legally enforceable demands on the "transfer"; and West Ham, who I suspect know they don't have a leg to stand on, but are terrified of being found out for basically "lying" to the Premier League about the real ownership of Tevez.

At this stage everything is in a stalemate, and it appears the law courts may be the only place to settle this.

However, this could open a massive can of worms (a la Bosman) for football. Currently the football industry operates between the legal lines governing sport and business.
When faced with freedom of contract, the Football powers try to claim that football is "unique" and should not be governed by statutory employment law.
When it comes to who owns a club and how much cold, hard cash they are offering, suddenly it's a case of "due dilligence" and off to the bank with the cheque!

I hope that this dispute can be settled sensibly and fairly for everyone, although I fear that may not possible because by following the rule of law on this one, we may come to realise that the Premier League have no actual legal governance over employment contracts and that 3rd party agreements are in fact perfectly legal.

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comment by jakebrother (U2040303)

posted Jul 24, 2007

FIFA announce that the Court of Arbitration for Sport should rule on "Tevez-Gate!!"

It seems that Tevez will indeed set a precedent either way for Football in Europe.

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comment by fredred1 (U7857433)

posted Jul 24, 2007

Media Sports Investments, the company who claim to own Carlos Tevez's economic rights, have issued a High Court writ against West Ham United.

MSI are trying to broker Tevez's proposed move to Manchester United, but the Premier League have insisted that West Ham must receive any transfer fee.

The Hammers insist they still own Tevez's registration and that has led to the latest action.

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comment by fredred1 (U7857433)

posted Jul 25, 2007

"Carlos Tevez's �30 million transfer to Manchester United will be settled in the High Court after the player's owners last night sued West Ham for terminating the third party agreements which they say control his economic rights."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/07/25/sfnfro125.xml

"After almost three months of wrangling over who owns the Argentine striker, the player's agent and part owner, Kia Joorabchian, has issued the writ in an effort to end the stalemate. The move came hours after football's world governing body, Fifa, referred the protracted saga to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a definitive ruling."

"Allowing West Ham to tear up the contract and continue to play Tevez was done on the proviso that their 'ownership' of Tevez would be monitored and under no circumstances would the Upton Park club be allowed to extricate themselves from the situation once the season reached its conclusion."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=470593&in_page_id=1779&ct=5

"Defending the Premier League's stance, chief executive Richard Scudamore said yesterday: "The options were sound. They (West Ham) chose the option they chose. It has made life difficult for them and, in a way, for us by choosing the option they did. But that is the option they chose."

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2133990,00.html

"They could have gone a different way. For eight months now we have been trying to resolve this issue as well as keeping the rule-book intact. It is quite difficult."

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comment by PfromWigan2 (U3050041)

posted Jul 25, 2007

Thanks for the research.

Looks like the PL are trying to distance themselves from West Ham's "decision" regarding playing Tevez in the last three matches of the season.

But if the PL try to impose another punsihment on West Ham, surely they can argue that they acted in good faith at the time?

Looks like this one is going to run and run.

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comment by fredred1 (U7857433)

posted Jul 25, 2007

they will say we have been informed by WHU and their legal advsiors

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comment by Takingabreakfromwork (U6564058)

posted Jul 30, 2007

The saga has taken another turn today with reports that WHU and the PL are prepared to let MSI buy Tevez's registration for an arbitrary fee of 6m.

It seems like this is the last throw of the dice to try and keep WHU from further charges and spare the PL's blushes.

I really hope this attempt to save face fails, and MSI and Sheffield United get the whole stinking mess uncovered in the courts. WHU and the PL cannot be allowed to get away with their continued deceit and dodgy practices.

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comment by fredred1 (U7857433)

posted Jul 30, 2007

MSI will probably only do a deal for less than their legal costs with one eye on any decrease on tevez's value

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comment by Hillsboro_Hammers (I will cure you ...) � (U8721907)

posted Jul 30, 2007