After weeks of wrangling, the Premier League arbitration panel is today due to give it's long awaited verdict on whether West Ham should be demoted to the Championship, and whether Sheffield United should retain their Premiership place at the Hammers' expense.

When Argentine pair Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano were unveiled as West Ham players last August I was as shocked as the rest of the world at the audacious swoop for two players who, you would be forgiven for thinking, were punching well below their weight by signing for a club who were more than likely to be fighting at the wrong end of the table.

It was clear then that the deal was slightly confusing. My concerns, like those of many others I'm sure, were more that they were using Upton Park as a shop window and that their stay would be brief, even as short as the approaching January transfer window. I could not have imagined that there was far more to the deal than was at first apparent. The pair, it was clear at the time, were pretty much "owned" by Media Sports Investments and MSIs former head Kia Joorabchian (who, it is clear now, is a bit of a shady character to say the least).

'The £5.5m fine meted out to West Ham was a record, and related exclusively to the withholding of documentation that related to the ownership of the world-class pairing'


By the end of the season Carlos Tevez had, with a little help from the rest, pretty much saved West Ham from relegation to the Championship. And tis in the one season when being relegated from the Premiership was to prove more costly than any other to date, due in no small part to the extra cash being injected from a new TV rights contract. Mascherano, on the other hand, had done little to earn a place alongside Tevez in the West Ham cult hero stakes, and was doing far better on Merseyside, where he found himself in a Champions League final with Liverpool.

The £5.5m fine meted out to West Ham was a record, and related exclusively to the withholding of documentation that related to the ownership of the world-class pairing. The Hammers accepted the fine, more in the hope of not wanting to 'rock the boat' than to any feelings of being unfairly punished. Sheffield United, or indeed any club who found themselves below Alan Curbishley's side and therefore relegated, were going to try their luck at getting the verdict re-opened. And let's be clear, that's all the panel can do as they wield no power beyond referring the matter back to have the case re-opened.

It seems doomed to failure, and even though the panel have sat for longer than anticipated, one can only feel that the verdict will find in West Ham's favour. Sheffield United's board are threatening to take the case to the European Commission should they not get the result they want. This may be just a bluff and I fear they will have to accept that they will sit out next season in the Championship which, I'm afraid, is where they deserve to be for, to quote another cliché, the League table does not lie.

Can you imagine what would occur should West Ham be docked points? It would lead to all clubs who suffered at the hands of Carlos Tevez to appeal a result that might have gone the way of the Hammers. Surely those teams have as much right to protest as Sheffield United?

Tevez was not much of an obstacle when the Blades carved up West Ham 3-0 in April, but the forward did put many other teams to the sword. He helped his side to a 1-0 win at the Emirates so does this mean that Arsenal can seek to overturn the result and therefore finish above Liverpool in third place? I am sure there are a good few clubs who could feel equally aggrieved and would deserve some recompense should Sheffield United succeed in their appeal.

To me, it appears that the real issue is with rules concerning contracts and "ownership" of players. In which case the financial punishment is far more appropriate. When you throw into the mix the mystery surrounding two Sheffield United signings, Jon Stead and Steve Kabba, there is even less of a case to be heard.