Kia Joorabchian and Sheffield United are working together against West Ham and the Premier League, in a bid to overturn what they see as the injustice of the Carlos Tevez affair. Significantly, Joorabchian has drawn to Sheffield United's attention a document dated 1 December 2006, reputed to be an amendment to the player's original contract made after West Ham had been acquired by their new owners.Joorabchian is co-operating with Sheffield United because he is unhappy that the Premier League made him pay West Ham £2m before allowing Tevez's transfer to Manchester United and because he is thought to be under pressure from the financial backers of his MSI organisation. As predicted in Observer Sport on 6 May, Sheffield United started legal action against West Ham this week, seeking millions of pounds in compensation for their relegation from the Premier League.
West Ham escaped a deduction of points by a Premier League commission in part because the fault was seen to lay with the previous owners of the club. In a letter been seen by Observer Sport, Kevin McCabe, the Sheffield United chairman, has written to Richard Scudamore, the league's chief executive, with the new evidence. McCabe believes it shows that the original judgment was crucially flawed.
McCabe wrote: 'We were particularly astonished to learn Mr Tevez's owners did not rely on contracts disclosed... to the Premier League in January. Instead Tevez's owners produced an entirely different agreement, which they say was signed by West Ham on 1 December 2006 - after West Ham had been acquired by its new owners. The importance of a third party agreement executed by West Ham's new owners cannot be overstated.'
McCabe then claims this shows that Eggert Magnusson, the new West Ham chairman, 'misled' the commission into believing 'they had come to the affair with clean hands'. West Ham were unavailable for comment when The Observer attempted to put these claims to the club.
