Man Utd Warned Against Tapping Up

According to The Independent a Premier League 'source' claimed that Manchester United's continuing failure to deal directly with West Ham in their attempt to sign Carlos Tevez could be in breach of the rules. The punishment for approaching a contracted player without the permission of his club ranges from a fine to a ban on transfer activity for up to two transfer windows.

The Premier League at the moment is unlikely to take such an action but it does sound like a warning shot in Man Utd's direction. Unfortunately the paper seems to think that West Ham are the ones the Premier League really want to punish. They suggest there is an appetite within the league for Joorabchian to take West Ham to court as a warning against other clubs undertaking similar contracts in the future.

This seems outrageously perverse of the league as they have already tried and punished West Ham for the offence. In fact it sounds like cowardice to me. Rather than punish Wigan and Sheff Utd, who have been calling for Richard Scudamore's head, for bringing the game into disrepute, the league seems to want to punish West Ham a second time.