West Ham chairman Eggert Magnusson says he remains confident Carlos Tevez
will stay at West Ham.
Argentina international Tevez, 23, said on Saturday he had his heart set on
a move to "one of Europe's top clubs".
But Magnusson said: "We will try to convince him to stay. The fans love him
and he knows that.
"I am at least optimistic that he will stay. I think we will talk in two
weeks' time as Carlos is in Argentina at the moment."
But speaking to The Sun newspaper on Saturday, Tevez appeared to have made
his mind up.
"I want to join one of Europe's big clubs, that's what I've talked to my
agents about," he said.
"I don't know about interest from Real Madrid but it makes me happy such an
important club is interested in me."
Whether he stays at Upton Park or leaves, Tevez's decision is likely to
cause yet more controversy over the summer.
The Hammers were fined a record £5.5m by an independent commission for
breaching Premier League rules when they signed him in August.
However, the club escaped a points deduction which would have effectively
doomed them to relegation and Sheffield United went down instead.
The Blades have requested arbitration on the matter, but the Premier League
have yet to reveal whether this will be granted - despite newspaper reports
on Sunday to the contrary.
An arbitration panel would not have the power to change the punishment
received by West Ham but it could find the original process faulty and
demand that the commission review its decision.
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Magnusson strikes back - KUMB
Filed: Sunday, 20th May 2007
By: Matthew O'Greel
Eggert Magnusson has broken his silence over the fallout from the £5.5m fine
imposed on West Ham.
The United Chairman, talking to the Independent expressed his disappointment
at the reaction from the likes of Wigan Chairman Dave Whelan and his
counterpart at relegated Sheffield United, Dave McCabe, who have since
sought - fruitlessly - to have the original verdict overturned.
"I find clubs commenting about their fellow clubs very strange," said
Magnusson. "And some people have gone too far.
"I've been disappointed at how some people have been allowed to speak about
my club after the judgement of the commission.
"For me, it's over. I don't want to say any more at the moment - but I might
do later in the summer."
Meanwhile, Magnusson has told Hammers fans that he will be doing his utmost
to keep Carlos Tevez at the club - despite the Argentinian striker sending
out a 'come and get me' plea to Europe's major clubs on Friday.
Magnusson confirmed that he would be meeting Tevez and agent Kia Joorabchian
when the former returns from Argentina, where he currently spending time
with his family, in an attempt to persuade the fans' favourite to return to
East London for another season - at least.
"Carlos is a West Ham player and we will try to convince him to stay," said
Magnusson.
"I hope he will be a West Ham player next season. He is a good lad and a
great player. The fans love him and he knows that. He is the kind of player
who needs to be loved.
"I am at least optimistic that he will stay. I think we will talk in two
weeks' time as Carlos is in Argentina at the moment."
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Eggert confident of Tevez stay - Sky Sports
By Chris Stanton - Created on 20 May 2007
West Ham chairman Eggert Magnusson is optimistic that Carlos Tevez will
still be at Upton Park next season.
Reports suggest the Argentine, pivotal in his team's successful battle
against relegation, is a target for some of Europe's biggest clubs,
including Real Madrid and Manchester United.
However Magnusson is confident that talks with Tevez and his representative,
Kia Joorabchian, once the player returns from a sabbatical in Argentina will
prove fruitful.
"Carlos is a West Ham player and we will try to convince him to stay,"
Magnusson told the Daily Mail.
"I hope Carlos will be a West Ham player next season. He is a good lad and a
great player. The fans love him and he knows that. He is the kind of player
who needs to be loved.
"I am at least optimistic that he will stay. I think we will talk in two
weeks' time as Carlos is in Argentina at the moment."
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Hammers horror gave Magnusson his belief - Daily Telegraph
By David Bond
Eggert Magnusson can remember the moment he knew West Ham would escape
relegation from the Premiership but it wasn't following the final whistle at
Old Trafford last Sunday.
Bizarrely, it was after a game that looked like the most shattering defeat
of an unbelievable season.The date was Sunday March 4 and Tottenham had just
beaten Alan Curbishley's side in a game which proved as difficult to pin
down as Jose Mourinho's dog. Twice Spurs had come from behind to level at
Upton Park before Paul Stalteri scored an injury-time winner to earn an
unthinkable 4-3 triumph.
Up in the directors' box the 60-year-old Magnusson could not bear to watch.
At the final whistle, Sky's cameras focused on him as he drew a hand slowly
across his eyes, before parting his fingers to peek at his devastated
players on the pitch below. At that point most people would have accepted
the game was up. West Ham were rock bottom of the table without a win since
mid- December.
But the club's Icelandic chairman says he never lost the faith. And he is
convinced that the game against Tottenham proved the turning point in one of
the Premier League's most thrilling and dramatic story-lines. "The Tottenham
game was a hard blow for us," said Magnusson yesterday. "But we played good
football and didn't deserve to lose. That game, in a way, set the tone for
the rest of the season. Football is so much about confidence and once you
lose that it goes downhill and it's hard to build it up again. But that
game, strangely, gave everyone a lift."
For a man who has just watched his club escape relegation by the skin of
their teeth, Magnusson does not wear the demeanour of a man who has just
pulled off one of the greatest escapes in the game's history. He is smiling
but his characteristic effervescence is missing as he walks into the West
Ham boardroom. To be frank, he looks shattered. And who would be surprised?
Since becoming chairman in the autumn, following a protracted £108 million
takeover battle for the club, Magnusson has experienced nearly every emotion
the game has to offer.
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Besides events on the pitch there have been gambling scandals, players going
AWOL in America and, of course, the ongoing row over Carlos Tevez, which
resulted in West Ham being hit with a record breaking £5.5 million fine last
month for breaking rules on third-party ownership.
The dispute between the Premier League and the 'gang of four' looks set to
rumble on into the summer, but, as far as Magnusson is concerned, last
Sunday's 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford was the final word.
So, how did it feel to know his team were safe, after the final whistle? "I
was like a deflated balloon," he said. "I was very happy. More happy than I
can describe. But at the same time, it took all the wind out of me. I never
gave up the hope. But for sure there had been so many things happening since
I came here. There seemed to be a new problem every day. On Sunday night
when I got home I was almost speechless. I could only think about how happy
I was for the team, the manager and the fans.
"I have been all the time optimistic, but of course, I had my darker
moments. But then you give yourself a kick and don't think this way. You
have to have faith.
"I have enjoyed it all enormously. The experiences I have had over the last
few months, I wouldn't have missed them for anything in the world."
Having put his own emotions through the wringer, Magnusson must have a sense
of what Sheffield United chairman Kevin McCabe and former manager Neil
Warnock felt when they were sent down by their defeat against Wigan on
Sunday. But, with so much rancour around, Magnusson says he hasn't contacted
anyone at Sheffield to offer his sympathies.
He said: "I have not called anyone at Sheffield. It's difficult. But I feel
for them. It's difficult to go down. But I feel some things that have been
said about this great club are unjustified."
Magnusson is clearly angry at the way West Ham have become, to borrow
Curbishley's expression, 'public enemy No 1'. He feels a number of people in
the game have overstepped the mark with their criticism of the club.
But, for now, he is keeping his head down and waiting for the dust to
settle. He believes the dispute with Wigan, Charlton, Fulham and Sheffield
United over the handling of the Tevez case is a matter for the Premier
League. In the meantime, he is getting on with planning for next season. He
held a meeting with Curbishley on Wednesday and will sit down with him after
he returns from a break in Florida next week to discuss what will be a busy
summer of restructuring.
The first item on the agenda is certain to be the future of Tevez, although
he says he has not yet held any meetings with his owner and agent Kia
Joorabchian, the man whose third-party agreements with the club landed them
at the centre of the storm.
Yesterday, Joorabchian, who at one stage was bidding against Magnusson to
buy the club, claimed in an interview that he and his offshore owners will
still be the financial beneficiaries if the Argentine striker moves from
Upton Park in the next few weeks.
Magnusson refuses to disclose whether the club still have an option to buy
the player, even though West Ham have terminated their agreements with the
two companies who own him, Media Sports Investments and Just Sport
Incorporated. He also declines to discuss what happened when those
agreements were ripped up following the April 27 ruling from the Premier
League's appointed commission. But he says there should be no question marks
over who holds his registration.
He said: "From my point of view both Tevez and [Javier] Mascherano were
registered correctly on Aug 31 and the registration of Tevez has been
correct from that date until the end of the season. There should be no
dispute. There have been all sorts of misinterpretations on this but
everyone agrees on this, including Fifa and the Premier League."
Despite the increasingly bitter dispute, Magnusson says he holds no grudges
against Joorabchian.
Magnusson said: "There hasn't been too much of a relationship between Kia
and myself. But I cannot hold him responsible for what happened here. He
probably didn't know anything about the fact that these third-party
agreements were not disclosed to the Premier League.
"When I took over the club, I had no idea until January that these
agreements had not been disclosed to the Premier League. I had no way of
knowing that, how would I? I am sure he didn't know anything about that. I
have no bitterness towards him, why should I?
"Sometime in the near future I hope to have a meeting with him. We will sit
down and discuss Tevez's future."
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PL: No change in Tevez affair - TeamTalk
The Premier League insists there has been no developments in the Carlos
Tevez affair amid reports an arbitration panel will review the case.
West Ham were fined £5.5million by an independent commission for having
third-part agreements connected with Argentina internationals Tevez and
Javier Mascherano after signing them last summer.
Sheffield United, who were relegated on the last day of the Premiership
season, are challenging the legality of an independent commission's decision
to fine West Ham rather than dock the club points and cancel Tevez's
registration.
The Blades lawyers have instituted "arbitration proceedings" against the
Premier League, and want a three-man tribunal set up to rule on the dispute.
A report in the Mail on Sunday claims that request has now been agreed by
the Premier League, and could be structured as early as next week.
The panel, though, would not hear the original case again, as Sheffield
United want, but rather consider only the process of the independent
commission, not the decision itself.
However, the report also claims should the arbitration panel find the
original process faulty, then the matter could be referred back to the
commission to review the punishment handed out to West Ham.
When contacted on Sunday morning, a spokesman for the Premier League
maintained their position was unchanged from before the weekend.
The so-called 'Gang of Four' clubs, which also includes Wigan, have raised
questions about whether Tevez should have been allowed to continue playing
for the club once the third-party interest from Kia Joorabchian became
apparent.
A six-page letter was sent to all 20 Premier League club chairmen from
league chief executive Richard Scudamore and chairman Sir Dave Richards,
saying there is no issue over whether Tevez was eligible or not to play for
West Ham.
It adds that there has been no precedent set that the club should have been
docked points for having a third-party agreement.
The Hammers, meanwhile, look set to step up their bid to keep Tevez at Upton
Park.
Chairman Eggert Magnusson said: "We will try to convince him to stay. I am
at least optimistic that he will stay. We will talk in two weeks' time as
Carlos is in Argentina at the moment."
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West Ham critics 'have gone too far' - The Independant
Magnusson seeks to defuse row as Premier League chairmen prepare for tense
summit
By Steve Tongue
Published: 20 May 2007
At the Premier League's annual general meeting each summer, clubs sit round
the table in alphabetical order. So on Thursday week, the representatives of
West Ham United will be sitting next to those from Wigan Athletic. It
promises to be a frosty occasion. Wigan and relegated Sheffield United
(whose place at the table will now be taken by Sunderland) have been the
most vociferous critics of the Premier League's decisions to fine West Ham
rather than deducting points, and to allow Carlos Tevez to continue playing
for them.
Wigan's chairman, Dave Whelan, has gone so far as to demand the resignation
of the League's two leading officials, Richard Scudamore and Sir David
Richards; Sheffield United want a new tribunal set up and are suggesting a
Premiership of 21 clubs next season. But West Ham, who would have gone down
on goal difference instead of United had they been deducted three points,
are now calling on the so-called Gang of Four to forget their grievance and
accept the verdict of the independent commission, just as the London club
accepted a £5.5 million fine imposed the day before they won a crucial game
3-0 at Wigan last month.
West Ham's chairman, Eggert Magnusson, has been reluctant to discuss the
issue publicly, but on Friday he told The Independent on Sunday: "Some
people have gone too far. I've been disappointed at how some people have
been allowed to speak about my club after the judgement of the commission. I
find it very strange, other clubs commenting [like that] about their fellow
clubs. For me, it's over. I don't want to say any more at the moment, but I
might do later in the summer."
Two contentious points remain. The Premier League's critics want to know
whether Kia Joorabchian, the third party involved, has genuinely agreed to
terminate his agreement with West Ham; and if so, and West Ham own the
player, why they are unlikely to receive any money when he is transferred.
The latter point, according to a Premier League spokesman, is misunderstood
and has precedents: "Third-party ownership is not against the rules per se.
When Leeds United bought players like Mark Viduka, for instance, they sold
them to Ray Ranson's company, Registered European Football Finance, and
leased them back. So when they were transferred later, hardly any of the
money went to the club. Similarly, money from transfers often goes to pay
off banks."
Tevez left Heathrow Airport with 18 suitcases last week, having apparently
cleared out his Canary Wharf flat, and it was assumed that West Ham
supporters had seen the last of him. Magnusson, somewhat optimistically,
insists that is not necessarily true: "I hope he stays. He is a terrific
player and a good guy. He knows the club and fans love him, and that will
stick in his mind while he is on holiday."
All in all, there has been considerably more drama than the former chairman
of the Icelandic Football Association was expecting when his consortium beat
Joorabchian's to take over West Ham last autumn, three months after Tevez
and Javier Mascherano joined. As the first outsider to take charge of the
club, he was hoping for a quiet season of consolidation under Alan Pardew's
management. In his first game, the team, 16th in the table, duly beat
Sheffield United, who had a good goal disallowed in the last minute; had it
stood, we now know, Wigan would have been relegated in the Yorkshire club's
place.
Magnusson gave Pardew a vote of confidence, then decided to sack him after
three straight defeats and appoint Alan Curbishley. "I think Alan Pardew's a
good manager and thought he would solve the problems at the club, but after
the Bolton game [a 4-0 loss] I had to make a tough decision. Then it took
Alan Curbishley longer to get to grips with the problems than we hoped."
He believes that South American players have difficulty adjusting to English
football and that West Ham never saw the best of Mascherano, but is glad to
have persevered with Tevez despite the shock of a £5.5m fine. "We were taken
totally by surprise that the fine was so high," he says.
Relegation seemed likely to inflict a heavier financial punishment, but the
club were able to effect an unlikely escape thanks to Tevez scoring seven
goals in the final 10 games, seven of which were won, including the last one
away to the champions, Manchester United. Two great escapes in one season,
the critics believe, as the football comes to an end but Whelan and dealing
rumble on.
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