The Carlos Tevez Affair

Today the broadsheets are full of comment from leading sports legal experts about the West Ham/Tevez ruling that the club broke the Premier League rules in the transfer of Carlos Tevez from his Brazilian club two years ago. Premier League betting fans might have noticed that most are keen to condemn the verdict of the independent tribunal. They complain that the ruling has created a precedent which will lead to all kinds of future actions. They are also concerned that the relegation battle was taken from the pitch to the courtroom.

One of them argues that this is what happens when you bring lawyers into play. This is shallow talk. At its most basic level, this is what happens when rules are broken. West Ham have conceded that they broke the rules and that they misled the original tribunal which fined them but failed to dock points. The tribunal left the points alone in the belief that such things should be decided on the pitch. The fact is, having decided that Tevez was playing for the club illicitly, they should have forced his withdrawal from the team with immediate effect. This would have solved the problem and left no party exposed to legal attack down the line. It seems that the break the Premier league made from the Football League in 1992 left them without the kind of stringent rule guidance and enforcement they clearly need.

I usually revert to the sport of golf at this stage and today will be no exception. The R&A and the PGA of America are the ruling bodies of golf and they leave almost zero room for misinterpretation of their rules. I remember the case of the great American golfer, Craig Stadler while playing in the 1987 Andy Williams Open. On the 14th hole, Stadler’s ball had landed under a bush and he laid a towel on the ground to save his knees from getting muddy while he knelt down to hit the ball. Watching highlights on the television the next day, rules zealots spotted the move as ‘building a stance’ – a breach of rule 13-3. This was duly reported and it cost him a disqualification and $37,333 in prize money. Sports betting enthusiasts may regard this as a tad unfair but it is this clarity and enforcement of rules which keeps sport out of court and in the park where it belongs.