BBC Sport takes an in-depth look at the complicated and controversial ruling by the English Premier League over West Ham United’s breach of rules in signing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from a group of third-party investors. Incidentally, there is nothing explicitly illegal about signing a pair of players whose economic rights are owned by a third party. Rather, the EPL ruling states that a third party may not in selling or loaning its players may not influence the “policies or the performance of [a] team.” However, when Tevez and Mascherano signed with West Ham, their investors signed a private agreement with the club, stating that the players’ contracts would be terminated as long as the investors paid West Ham approximately $4 million in the case of Tevez, and $300,000 in the case of Mascherano. The EPL commission said West Ham broke its rules through both the terms of the private agreement and the decision to conceal it from the league. West Ham duly pleaded guilty to both charges and was fined close to $11 million; it was not deducted points, however, as was widely expected.
The Premier League said a club would normally be deducted points for such an offense, but it cited seven reasons, including the club’s open admission of guilt, why a deduction would “not be proportionate” given the circumstances. Among them, ironically, was West Ham’s precarious 18th place position in the EPL standings at the time. The commission said that players and fans didn’t deserve a punishment that would see their club automatically relegated, because the breach wasn’t their fault. Okay, but what about last year’s Calciopoli scandal in Italy? Thousands of fans at big clubs basically had to write off the 2006-07 season due to the poor judgment of club executives. To that point, a sports lawyer told BBC the EPL decision smattered of “favorable treatment,” though he said a lawsuit it would be a costly and, likely, fruitless pursuit for EPL clubs.