Charles Sale: Age concern over
West Ham ruling

Updated: 19:12 EST, 28 September 2008

Strong concern has been expressed in the fall-out from the football fiasco that is the £30million compensation claim between Sheffield United and West Ham at Lord Griffiths chairing the proceedings at the grand age of 85.

Lord Griffiths, former MCC president and Royal & Ancient captain, has had a highly distinguished legal career. But he has presided over this critical case when 15 years past the retirement age of 70 at which the FA, who agreed to the arbitration, regard their board members and committee chairmen as past their sell-by-date.

A number of observers and witnesses at the tribunal have doubts whether any 85-year-old - even a law Lord - has the necessary physical and mental fitness to concentrate throughout the lengthy cross-examinations before having the responsibility of delivering a verdict.

Understandably, there were times during the Sheffield United case when eye-witnesses said Lord Griffiths was looking tired.

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All smiles back then: Tevez is unveiled as a West Ham player in 2006

The repercussions are likely to reverberate for the rest of the season, and beyond, despite top Premier League officials believing that the exact amount of damages West Ham will have to pay Sheffield United will be decided at a direction meeting on Thursday - as both clubs agreed that the arbitration decision would be binding.

However, West Ham, with legal football specialist Maurice Watkins in their corner, do not see it that way. They believe they still have every right to take the case to the Council of Arbitration for Sport who will receive a written application from West Ham tomorrow.

The London club also cannot see how Griffiths's team can decide on the compensation figure before there is a forensic examination of Sheffield United books to detail their real losses at losing Premiership status.

Murray knees up

Andy Murray was spotted among the West Ham fans during the 2-1 win against Fulham which sparked chants of 'Who the f**** is Rafa Nadal' and 'Murray's a Hammer'. In fact, the U.S. Open finalist supports Barcelona, from his time based training there, and Hibernian.

Olympic Spirit

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell were upgraded to first-class on their return British Airways flight from the Beijing Paralympics. But both the Tory and Labour grandees showed a generous heart by giving up their seats to British Paralympic athletes and moving back to economy for the nine-hour flight.

Just not cricket?

A further sign that the increasingly fraught Stanford Twenty20 in Antigua is as much about launching Sir Allen Stanford's company as a global financial services player as it is a cricket event is in media emails. They always include a long spiel about the background and worldwide ambitions of the Stanford Financial Group. A Stanford spokesman said: 'Sir Allen has never hidden the fact that he sees cricket as a vehicle for his company strategy.'

Nigerians come to Toon

Newcastle United are understood to have three consortiums genuinely interested in buying the club from Mike Ashley, the two most likely new owners based in China and Singapore. But the Nigerian-based group are still in the race, having told Newcastle that they have the necessary £300m lodged with a lawyer in the African country. When they were told that it would be preferable for the money to be on hold in an English account, assurances were given that a large proportion of the asking price would be with a London law firm by today.

FA's fifth out of ten

Football Association chairman Lord Triesman has picked a former FA employee to find the next chief executive of the organisation. Paul Nolan, who used to be the HR boss at Soho Square before setting up his own headhunting operations Nolan Partners, has won the tender to unearth the FA's fifth chief executive in a decade.