Sheffield United: Arbitration On The Way

According to the Daily Mail and Hammered Blog West Ham United can't refuse arbitration. Arbitration is immediately triggered when one club calls for arbitration against another.

West Ham was told on Monday that the FA will conduct an arbitration hearing into Sheffield United's case. The relegated club claim up to £ 50 million in damages from West Ham because of the "Carlos Tévez affair" and have 'served notice of arbitration' on West Ham last week.

The FA have given the Hammers' board 14 days to respond and to nominate a representative on a three-man panel. United and West Ham will each chose an arbitrator. The identity of the key independent third member of the panel is to be thrashed out by agreement between the clubs.

The Daily Mail says that United chairman Kevin McCabe will push for the panel to be made up of football figures rather than the legally-orientated Premier League tribunal who sat in June. They backed the League's decision to spare West Ham a points deduction despite admitting that they probably would have applied such a sanction over Tevez and Javier Mascherano breaking third party rules.

Sheffield United claim that they have compiled evidence that Tevez was still owned by Kia Joorabchian's MSI Group when he fired West Ham clear of relegation at the Bramall Lane club's expense.

I think that Sheffield don't have a case because they won't be able to give proof that the damages resulting from their relegation have been caused by the "third party agreement" concerning Tévez and Mascherano:

1) West Ham haven't played "ineligible players"; it was never formally forbidden by the Premier League (FAPL) to play them;

2) Sheffield were relegated because of their insufficient performances on the pitch not because of a "third party agreement" which by the way never has been executed.

I think that Sheffield are still hoping to get some compensation from West Ham or from the Premier League in an out of court settlement and want to impose pressure upon West Ham and the FAPL through the arbitration proceedings.