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Sheffield United Players Should Sue West Ham United

September 26th, 2008 By The Gaffer --> Comments

west-ham-sheffield-united Sheffield United Players Should Sue West Ham United

After a Football Association appointed arbitration hearing ruled in the favor of Sheffield United earlier this week, lawyers in England must have smelled blood because now up to 12 Sheffield United players who were relegated at the end of the 2006/2007 season are seeking legal advice regarding the possibility of suing West Ham United for loss of earnings.

And so they should.

West Ham United and its fans should be very concerned about the financial stability of the club due to the way the club cheated in the 2006/2007 season when it lied to the Premier League about documents withheld regarding Carlos Tevez. With a damages hearing scheduled soon, West Ham may be forced to pay Sheffield United £30 million in compensation. This is in addition to the £5 million fine that West Ham has already paid. Now the threat of lawsuits from the players, coupled with the loss of their main sponsor, could send West Ham into severe financial trouble.

Meanwhile, West Ham United’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) looks doomed for failure as CAS will only hear the case if both Sheffield United and West Ham United agree.

Now that the Football Association appointed arbitration hearing has ruled in the favor of Sheffield United, the club’s players have every right to sue West Ham. If Tevez didn’t play for West Ham that season, the Hammers would have been relegated and the Sheffield United players would have benefitted financially from keeping the club in the top division.

Some of the players at the Bramall Lane club suffered pay cuts of between 30% and 50% when they were relegated.

According to The Guardian, “Given the various cuts to bonuses and pay negotiated in the individual contracts it is not known what the total claim against West Ham from the players would be, but it would be a significant addition to the fine of up to £30m that the Hammers will have to pay Sheffield United.”

With the amount of money West Ham United may end up paying to get out of this whole mess, it sends a clear message to Premier League clubs that cheats don’t prosper despite what the back cover picture at the top of this story says.

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Tags: Carlos Tevez · Sheffield United · West Ham United

Viewing 17 Comments

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    West Ham's dealings with Kia Joorabchian/MSI are what's being called into question here. It has nothing to do with Tevez, Sheff U, or anything on the pitch.

    Yes, Tevez was one of the many reasons Sheff U went down, but that's neither here nor there because he was legally registered just like the rest of the WHU squad, and the Sheff U squad.
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    "If Tevez didn’t play for West Ham that season, the Hammers would have been relegated."
    You are a deluded fool. How an earth can you say this? If Tevez didn't play, then someone else would. If Tevez hadn't signed in the first place, then West Ham might not have been involved in a relgation battle in the first place. All these points are subjective, just like your pathetic FACT.
    Especially when these articles rarely report true facts, they are mainly based on assumption and information gathered from other such useless news reports.
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    Scott. spot on mate, there are so many factors in a whole season and The plum who ruled that west ham were at least 3 points better off with tevez playing is a complete idiot who knows nothing about 38 games of 90 minute football matches.
    the only thing that im concerned about is WHY ON EARTH DID WHU AGREE TO AN INDEPENDANT TRIBUNAL ? sheff utd had already lost 2 court cases and their greedy northern chairman MCcabe stated before the first court case that "this is not about money"
    i hope our lawyers put a stop to all this rubbish as it could upset our season, just when we thought we were back on track.
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    Unfortunately it's not a choice. The FA rules require you to accept but then won't let you appeal. That seems illegal to me. Perhaps West Ham should sue the FA over their rules? This could just go on for bloody ever and the only ones to prosper are lawyers and those who can't take responsibility for their own failings.
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    if sheffield unitrd were any bloody good then they would have won more games and stayed up anyway. time to ' sit down, shut up' All this 'it's not fair.. West Ham had a better player than us, they cheated!!! ' crap has to stop. Tevez was one player not a whole team...You got relegated because, bottom line you weren't good enough to stay up. WARNOCK...'i shouldn't have relegation on my CV'?????............. shut up!!!!!...
    Sue West Ham because of loss of earnings???
    why not sue every other team that took points of you that season as well, oh don't forget the referee who awarded Liverpool that penalty. Why don't the club sue thier own players for not being good enough to win the games in the first place or the fans for not cheering loud enough to spur the players on..... we could go on all day here.
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    As a West Ham fan, I was disgusted with how the club conducted themselves regarding Tevez and Mascherano affair, but in light of this. Why aren't the other 18 clubs in premiership seeking compensation. Also Mascherano played more games than Tevez, so surely he's to blame more so for keeping the Hammers up. I was always told one man does not a team make, but if I'm wrong then we should save all the wages that the England squad get paid and just send Theo Walcot to all the world cup qualifiers, after all didn't he beat Croatia on his own
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    What a complete IDIOT the person that wrote this article is. An absolute MORON. No further comment required.

    Please West Ham supporters, don't sink to Sheffield Utd. levels.
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    What an idiot, where will it all end? Will watford be sueing the referee for the goal that never was against Reading if they fall one point short of promotion? This has opened a complete can of worms and the only people to benefit will be the greedy lawyers. Maybe you will be taken to court for deformation of character with your factless accusations of cheating!! Be very careful.
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    This is possibly one of the worst articles I have ever read. Refer to Martin Samuels article (7 times winner of sports writer of the year). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnis...

    The purchase of Tevez and Masherano were one of the main reasons West Ham had such an unsettled season, the year before getting to the FA Cup final?? The Premier League registered these players, legally.

    Its funny how teams didn't mention this issue until in trouble at the end of the season, which we must remember, was due to poor performances. How a Sheffield United fan can back players who got their team relegated due to perfomances is beyond me. Do they deserve compensation? Hell no.
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    Martin Samuels really does sum it up well.

    Amazing how something like this shows off people true colors. This site has been crap for some time.
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    So Patrick, I ask you again...why do you continue to come to this site if this site has been 'crap for some time'.

    I'll say it again, thank you for your readership and continued readership.
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    All this is irrelevant. These players knew the situation before they played their last game against Wigan at home. They had their own destiny in their hands and could not beat a side at home who were even down to 10 men. Where will this madness end?, next West Ham will be sued by supporters who could not watch Liverpool, Chelsea or Man Utd at Bramall Lane or vendors who could not sell scarves,hot dogs, pies and burgers,the Fa said that this hearing would put an end to this and all it has done is made it worse.
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    I have to agree the article is complete rubbish, those players for Sheff Utd need to think very carefully, where will this lead... "if the ref had not blown the whistle for the game to start then we would never have gone down" type of court case.
    As for Warnock, so he has relegation on his CV, others have far worse, Joey Barton's must be a great read.
    Ignore this guy, ignore those players, they will never win.
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    What the Sheffield United players should do is look at themselves in the mirror and say' 'was I good enough to play in the Premiership?' The answer is an emphatic NO. Your destiny was in your ahnds and you blew it! You lost your last home game which was enough to keep you up.

    Get over it and grow up!
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    What this says to me is that 10 Sheffield Utd players think that they aren't as good as one West Ham player. As a Hammer's fan I'd have to agree, but in all honesty, where will it end?

    Tevez was cleared to play by the EPL after they heard the case and imposed the fine with 3 games left in the season. Sheffield still had their fate in their own hands and it's the fault of the Sheffield players that they didn't have the skill, determination and guts to save their own skins.

    So what next, will the Sheffield fans sue for emotional stress? Will the pubs and shops around Bramall Lane sue for loss of income as well?

    Kiss goodbye to the beautiful game if you let the lawyers decide the winners and losers.
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    GAFFER a new low...


    its clear now that its just personal for you. as you have a very thin grasp of the facts of this situation. and maybe its easier for you that way to hold onto this line of argument that the Club is a bunch of cheats.


    I could run through this item by item but its frankly old and boring. Do you even understand what it is that let SUFC finally win on its 4th or 5th try???

    Do you understand why they won this last judgement?

    its from hearsay. That Scott Duxbury had a gentleman's agreement with MSI to release Tevez at seasons end. And that was brought forward by a reporter, who had no other proof then hearsay. not even from Kia or Duxbury. mind you this was after the fine, and only in regard to the last three matches.

    This was the new evidence that McCabe was screaming about. Not sure how familiar you are with the law in free countries but hearsay isn't admissible.

    as for YOU. its one thing to have a blog entry where you state what is in papers etc.. but to say "Sheffield United Players Should Sue West Ham United" the key word being SHOULD - then you need to have some sort of editorial reasoning behind that. In other words you need to prove they SHOULD by providing cause, not just effect.

    and no player will sue West Ham. Because they can't. They'd have to sue the FA since it was the FA the 'allowed' them to remain in the league. And I'm not a legal expert, but from things I've read and heard about such suits is they have about as much chance of suing WHU as I do suing SUFC for wasting my time writing this.

    and personally I'd like to know how you came up with the assertion " Now that the Football Association appointed arbitration hearing has ruled in the favor of Sheffield United, the club’s players have every right to sue West Ham" what are you basing that statement on?? and as far as I was aware the biggest relegation wage cut can be is 25% so where does your 30 to 50% come from...

    not to mention every story I've read mentions 10 players not 12.


    are you just making this stuff up?


    and what is REALLY the message out of this... is it that smaller clubs like West Ham will be given the shaft for the same activity that routinely happens at 'big four' clubs, you may recall a certain wink wink handshake deal Man U had that very same season. But it was not proceeded with because most of the evidence was 'hearsay'. or just about any deal that happens at CFC

    have a good weekend
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    Patrick,

    Obviously we disagree about the statements made in this article. It's a matter of my opinion, which you don't agree with -- and you're entitled to that.

    But rather than be negative, let's turn it around. If you're not satisfied with the quality of the articles here, I've given you an opportunity to write your own. You ignored that.

    So, tell me, what topics would you like to see covered that you feel would be interesting to read. Your feedback is welcomed.

    Cheers,
    The Gaffer

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