West Ham legal issue over Carlos Tevez sets dangerous precedent

West Ham legal issue over Carlos Tevez sets dangerous precedent - Times Online

Yesterday, a tribunal led by Griffiths found that one player - Carlos Tévez - had decided the Premier League relegation issue in 2006-07, as fact. Not as opinion. Not with any vague doubt that the hundreds of other footballers, managers and coaches who were involved might have had some impact,

West Ham legal issue over Carlos Tevez sets dangerous precedent - Times Online

Griffiths said that Sheffield United went down because of Tévez.

West Ham legal issue over Carlos Tevez sets dangerous precedent - Times Online

the FA's independent tribunal took into account as one of Sheffield United's witnesses the testimony of the chief football writer of The Daily Telegraph, who said that Tévez kept West Ham up.

West Ham legal issue over Carlos Tevez sets dangerous precedent - Times Online

Yet he is no more an expert in this matter than any devotee of football. Neither am I. If writers could predict the outcome of matches so precisely that we could say for certain, not just as an opinion, what specific factors have won and lost games, or how a match would have panned out had a single participant been removed, we would not need to work. No journalist would present his views as anything more than informed estimation. It is a punt, really. All of it. A good one, we hope, and we like to think entertaining, but a punt nonetheless.

West Ham legal issue over Carlos Tevez sets dangerous precedent - Times Online

So why was the man from the Telegraph even called? Why does an independent tribunal with the power to pass a ruling that will change football in England irrevocably rely in part on speculation and guesswork? It beggars belief.

West Ham legal issue over Carlos Tevez sets dangerous precedent - Times Online

Sheffield United have been hawking this case from commission to courtroom to tribunal until they have found men misguided enough to believe that they can imagine the league programme and legislate on these visions.