It would appear that agreement has finally been reached today that will result in Carlos Tevez moving from West Ham to Manchester United. But what are the contract terms, and has this move finally laid the doubts surrounding his initial move to West Ham last summer? If not, then could there be more legal developments yet to come?

The original "transfer" of both Tevez and Mascherano to West Ham last summer appears to have been part of a takeover play for the club by a consortium that may have included associations with the owners of the management company, MSI, that itself owns the economic rights for both players. Ultimately, any potential takeover was thwarted by an Icelandic Group that took control of the club in November last year, headed by Eggert Magnusson, who as well as being a successful businessman was, at the time, also president of the Icelandic FA.

Third-party ownership of players' economic rights is now quite a common scenario in South America, and would appear to be accepted, as part of contractual arrangements between club and player, by most governing bodies in Europe. In effect, the player is on temporary loan to the club, but from his economic rights owners', with the player's current club holding his registration whilst the loan deal is in place.

However, the English FA does not recognise such arrangements as far as the FA registration of a player is concerned. Here, clubs must wholly control the registration of their players. It is the registration that is transferred between clubs when a currently-contracted player moves, and it is that registration that has the economic value that governs the size of any transfer fee negotiated between the two clubs involved. Effectively the player's new club is buying the registration, and where the registration goes, the player goes with it. Furthermore, when a player is sent-out to another club on loan, then the registration is temporarily transferred for a set period of time, but the ownership of the registration remains with the club that he is loaned from. Should a club decide to release a player, then it cancels both his contract and the registration, enabling the player to move to another club unencumbered by negotiation.

As a consequence, although a registered player is eligible to play in any league covered by the jurisdiction of FA, he is not able to, legally, play for more than one club at any time. What the ensuing disputes appear to centre upon, in this case,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Reflections about the resolution of the Premier League's Carlos Tevez affair?
We want to hear your view. Write now!