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.
