Things tend to get complicated when Carlos Tevez and his owners are involved, a lesson Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United are learning now that the English Premier League has stepped in to block the player’s transfer from West Ham United. The story goes like this: Manchester United refused to pay West Ham a transfer fee for the player, but the Premier League won’t release him from his contract without one. Both Tevez (in a personal letter) and Media Sport Investment (which partly owns the player) have lobbied the EPL to terminate his West Ham registration, but the league denied them any rights to that registration after West Ham tore up its agreement with MSI at the end of last season.
United’s position is that West Ham doesn’t own the player, and therefore should not have to pay a transfer fee. The Old Trafford club’s negotiations have been with Tevez representative Kia Joorabchian of MSI, who led the club to believe that the Argentine is technically a free agent. However, the EPL believes United stance undermines the agreement forged between West Ham and the league after the West End club was found guilty of breaching Premiership rules in signing Tevez. The league made it clear that it has the right to veto any transfer, and would only allow a commercially realistic transfer fee for the player. The Guardian says the issue will most likely be resolved in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport; other publications think FIFA now has to step in.