Retrial required to solve saga of Tevez

Murkier and murkier. Fouler and fouler. The Carlos Tevez affair is plumbing

depths so fetid that, unless justice is dragged screaming from this quagmire,

the Premier League will be in danger of drowning in its own effluent when it re-opens for dodgy business next month.

This is a catastrophe in the making,

not only for the one sport

which excites even wilder passions

than sex among the people of this

country but also for Britain's longheld

and jealously guarded reputation

for fair play.

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By and large, despite all the

muck thrown in its direction and

the ill-considered antics of a few of

its most famous practitioners,

English football is a game of

integrity. Certainly, it occupies

morally higher ground than the

Italian home of the world champions.

A widely-held conviction that

our national game is straight is

fundamental to its mass popularity

and therefore its astronomical

rewards.

The Premier League will continue

to compromise that belief at

its own peril and to the financial

jeopardy of its clubs. Everywhere

— with the natural exception of

Upton Park and its environs —

there is a strong public sense that

West Ham cheated, that Sheffield

United have been robbed and that

this matter should be put right

before the multi-billion pound

show goes back on the road.

Meanwhile, as Tevez waits impatiently

to be flogged on to Manchester

United by football's equivalent

of a horse trader, the iniquity

of the wrist-slapping failure to

dock West Ham points for riding

the Argentine's irregular goals on

the way to their escape from relegation

comes ever closer to being

legally exposed.

Sheffield United are heading for

the High Court this Friday in hot

pursuit of their appeal for reinstatement

to the Premier League

in place of the Hammers.

That is the one place to which

they can subpoena the player's

'commercial' owner, Kia

Joorabchian, thereby obliging him

to give evidence and to disclose

the documentation which he has

been hinting will prove that Tevez

kept West Ham up in breach of the

Premier League's own rules.

Not only that, but the League

executives squirming on this

hook, Sir Dave Richards and

Richard Scudamore, face being

hauled into court by Joorabchian

if they try to prevent him being

paid by United for supplying Tevez

Yet unless they attempt to force

the Premiership champions to

hand over the bulk of these 'loan' fees to West Ham, they will be

damned by tacit admission that

Tevez was under third-party

influence in contravention of their

regulations.

Catch 22, gentlemen.

There is only one way out and it

is the recourse which the governing

body of the world game would

prefer. FIFA are furiously opposed

to football disputes going to court

and will be urging the Football

Association to help the Premier

League find a solution.

Frankly, it is astonishing that the

FA have not intervened. But then

this is the body which lured England's

major teams away from the

old four-division structure into

forming the FA Premier League,

only to hand over power to the

club chairmen who could not wait

to exercise their vested interests.

UEFA, for its part, are giving

thanks that Liverpool lost the

Champions League Final. Otherwise,

knowing how the Italians

and the country's former prime

minister Silvio Berlusconi operate,

be sure that AC Milan would be

questioning the eligibility for

Europe's blue riband event of

another of Joorabchian's hot

Argentine properties. Javier

Mascherano took the same loan

route from Buenos Aires to

Merseyside, via West Ham, which

Tevez is following to Manchester.

If the Premier League refuse to

ratify Tevez's next move, they

must expect United to cry foul and

double standards.

Catch 23, gentlemen.

So what is that solitary escape

hatch? Before this can get to court

— where no judge worth his wig

could help but find against their

Star Chamber injustice — the

League must ask the FA to join

them in forming a joint commission

and calling a re-trial on the

grounds of fresh evidence from

Joorabchian.

They simply cannot go on hiding

behind the independent tribunal's

equally enfeebled failure to

enforce a second hearing despite

finding the Premier League at

fault. Nor can they claim it is too

late because the fixtures have

been published. Given a little fine

tuning to avoid local clashes,

Sheffield and West Ham can swap

their Premiership and Championship

programmes.

There are calls for the heads of

Richards and Scudamore but, if a

sacking offence was committed,

perhaps it was that of naively

assuming they could impose a

token fine for West Ham's malpractice

and deceit and all would

be forgotten. That was never

going to happen, not just because

Sheffield United are up for the

fight but because they have

offended the rule of law as it

applies all the way down to the

grass roots of the game.

On Hackney Marshes, just up

the East End road from Upton

Park, the punishment is swift and

unavoidable for any team caught

fielding that well-known utility

player, A Ringer. They lose the

points or they are booted out of

the cup.

This weekend a source 'close' to

Joorabchian, by way of making it

clear West Ham had no legal right

to tear up their agreement unilaterally

in a devious attempt to get

round the rules, came up with this

candidate for Analogy of the Year:

'If you borrow a car from someone

and you tear up the log-book, that

doesn't make you the owner.'

If the men in charge of English

football want to avoid being run

off the block like so many dodgy

used car salesmen, they have to

right a wrong which is undermining

the people's confidence in

their game.

King Roger and Crown Prince Rafael served up an all-time classic men's singles final yesterday as our wettest Wimbledon turned to glorious summer.

Lord Borg looked on approvingly as

Federer the Great was pushed

beyond imagination before

equalling his modern-day record of

five consecutive All England

Championships.

Nadal the Future obliged Federer

not merely to change up to top gear,

not just raise his game to a higher

level in the final set, but to ascend to

a state of grace.

The Spanish maestro of clay-court

rallying transformed himself for

vital periods into a demon

serve-volleyer as he became the

first man to take two sets off the

Swiss grass-master since Federer

started winning Wimbledon in 2003.

Suddenly, having twice been

stretched to two break-points

against him in the deciding fifth,

Federer summoned up from

somewhere deep in his genius a

sublime climax to this legendary

battle in the making.

Only just in time, because Nadal is

now closer to beating him on his

beloved Wimbledon grass than

Federer is to solving the Spanish

puzzle on French clay.

The worst Wimbledon ever?

Methinks not, despite the drenching

of SW19 before Finals weekend. Tim

Henman's two five-setters set the

trend for epic matches, yesterday's

masterpiece above all.

Hawk-Eye came and was at once

called into question. The rain breaks

provided three, four and five-day

dramas played out under suitably

Wagnerian skies, yet still they

finished the main events on schedule.

A jolly mademoiselle called Marion

Bartoli supplied the upset of the

Millennium by beating World No 1

Justine Henin in the semi-finals

before giving best to Venus Williams,

the first of two great champions to

grace a topless Centre Court.

That would have held just as true had

Nadal achieved the triumph he

deserved for much of this final. His

day will come. For the moment, let

him be aware that here was that

rare afternoon when a grateful

Wimbledon kept hoping that

neither man would lose.

Hamilton hype needed to hit brakes

While guests at a private function with Lewis Hamilton were being kept

waiting for well over two hours by the Stevenage phenomenon's late arrival,

we were informed that he was stuck in traffic.

Well, at least the thought

of Britain's Formula One

champion-elect crawling

along at 5 mph was good

for a laugh, true or not.

Less happily, it happened

to him again yesterday.

The petrol-head masses

who descended on

Silverstone in anticipation

of a home win at the British Grand Prix went home

disappointed.

Not that it was the end of

the world. Barely a

hundred days ago the

prospect of this 22-year-old

English prodigy finishing

third to book his ninth

consecutive visit to the

podium and retain his lead

in the world championship

would have had them

dancing on their car

bonnets.

Just as Hamilton had no

real excuse for his

tardiness last week — not

least because he was

wearing one of the many

state-of-the-art watches

given to him as an

ambassador for Tag Heuer

— so he had no one else to

blame for getting stuck

behind Ferrari's Kimi

Raikkonen's and his

in-house McLaren rival,

Fernando Alonso

This race was lost in that

split-second when he

jumped the gun during his

first pit stop.

Not there was any real

harm done. Rather, this

momentary setback gives

all those involved a chance

to take stock.

There is an alternative

body of opinion in the pit

lane that not only

Raikkonen is just as fast as

our boy racer at this stage

of his development, but

that the same would be

true of Polish trail-blazer

Robert Kubica if had the

advantage of driving a

McLaren or Ferrari.

There is no shame in that,

either. Expectations have

been getting ahead of

Hamilton.

McLaren should not be

urging him to leave home

for a tax haven, certainly

not so soon, nor cocooning

his charming self behind

platoons of security goons.

Neither should they be

controlling his every

public utterance, not when

he is one of the brightest

buttons in the paddock.

This young man has

everything it takes to

become a Great British

hero — a sensible father

included — if only he is

allowed to express himself

freely and make his own

grown-up decisions.

A time check?

The whole Hamilton circus

will be all the better for

yesterday's reality check

at Silverstone.