At long last the nightmare seems to be over. The Official Site has the text of the Premier League statement from the Griffiths Inquiry into the club’s role in the Tevez affair. Their finding was that West Ham had no case to answer. That will come as a relief, but not a surprise, to most.
Too true chris, I suppose it is just a case of wait and see now in terms of what player comes out the other end, I have my fingers crossed not because he is irreplacable but because I always liked the type of player he is and hope to see him in a hammers shirt again!
As I thought, you have to search very hard through the sports pages today to find the 2 or 3 papers who are running a small story about the FA findings.
I have to disagree with the posters who say lets just forget about this and get back to talking football. I won’t be forgetting about it. The past two years have seen this club publicly dragged through the mud by McCabe and Warnock and will see us always labelled as cheats.
These two monkeys have deliberately set out to destroy this club’s reputation (and to a certain degree succeeded) so they could hide their own failings and grab some cash. Ince never did that, neither did Lampard or Defoe, Hackett, Brown… anyone that I can recall.
Of course the club will move on and Zola, Clarke, Nani and Duxberry are doing a very good job of moving us forward. But I think we as fans should remember what has happened here and if anyone is deserving of the role of villains it’s these two, along with Whelan.
Griffifths is a mug who failed miserably in the job he was given to do and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near an important decision again.
Joorabchian started this whole thing in the first place. He has proved he would have used this club merely to line his own pockets by whatever means necessary. And then he had the gall to threaten taking the stand against us so he could get HIS hands on some of our cash. For those who are still hoping he buys West Ham I say go and watch Crewe Alexander if you want a feeder club you can be proud of. That’s what he had in mind for us.
Brown and Duxberry should have known better. Brown wanted out to the highest bidder and closed his eyes to what had to happen to that end. Duxberry was our small print man and should have lost his job over the original punishment. But I guess you would have to say that when someone makes a mistake all you can ask is that they do everything they can to put things right, and what Duxberry has done over the last couple of years is the equivalent of Lampard or Ince making a full apology on the back page of the Sun. And then some.
Move on? Yeah. Forget about what happened and allow everyone (including some on here) to think that McCabe and Warnock probably deserved what they got? Not me.
I’m all in favour of dignity but we should understand what has happened and be able to put right those who would end all our banter with ‘WH are cheats and should have been relegated’.
I agree with pretty much everything of what you say Munky.
What I don’t particularly want to see is discussions dragging on and on about how hard done by we were and what an injustice we’ve had to endure. Let’s not be like Newcastle and whine endlessly about “Hard Luck” stories.
Successful people and organisations draw learning, move on quickly and don’t wallow in self pity. West Ham is fast becoming a Successful club displaying Successful behaviours and we all play our part in that.
Sorry to be a bit bullish on this issue, it is not an approach I usually adopt. It is just that a minority of contributors really annoyed me with their ultra-negative response to my original analysis of the situation.
Those people that got it wrong will either now stay silent or put forward flawed arguments to try and substantiate their orginal view point. They are likely to argue that this is not a positive result that shows that West Ham did not break the PL/FA rules after the first tribunal, but simply a dropping of the case because there is insufficient evidence to proceed!!!!!
So it is not a case of innocence, but one of guilt not proven based on available evidence! If there is no evidence then innocence must be assumed, that is the underlying principle of any proper police investigation or court case. So, why the logical gymnastics in this case?
West Ham did an excellent job substantiating that they followed the PL’s instructions to the letter after the first tribunal. Any hearsay evidence was inadmissible and one person’s word against another’s, without any collaborating evidence one way or the other, was only ever going to have one outcome!
West Ham are innocent of any further wrong doing, end of subject! On another level, I wondered at the time why some so-called fans were so very keen to see us punished again? I will leave that question open and others can reach their own conclusions!
Anyway, now I have got that off my chest, lets look at Griffths in more detail. Not only does the ruling need to be reviewed, but also the processes followed at the Tribunal.
In particular, why did Griffths over-emphasise the uncollaborated views of Graham Shear over those of other witnesses? Why did they put should weight on the Blunts witnesses such as Henry Winter and Grham Taylor in assessing Tevez’s individual contribution to West Ham’s survival and the Blunts demise?
The process and legal rationale underpinning the Tribunal’s ruling needs to be examined and it’s members held to account. Really, the issue of Tevez’s contribution, although still completely wrong, is irrelevant now, because this latest investigation proves beyond all doubt that he was properly registered and able to play in those last three matches of the season. However, the preccedent remains, and that is dangerous in the extreme.
Like others, I see that the press response is, shall we say, somewhat understated! What a surprise!
Gav, I’m not advocating wallowing in self-pity. I am concerned that the facts are not buried under the headlines of the last two years and our reputation is at least partly restored. It does also disturb me to read some peoples ideas of the heroes and villains.
You are absolutely right about identifying with success rather than as hard-done-bys and that is, of course, more important than being drawn back into old arguments and as we move towards (successfully) fighting for European football every season Warnock and McCabe can be the ones holding on to their bitterness.
But, like Celtic Hammer with the boardroom stuff, this is something that interests me and, although I am no expert, I kind of enjoy discussing it. Surely as long as we don’t descend into bitterness then in threads like this we can chew over some of the finer points of the saga.
Just read my last post back and it sounds a bit patronising. Not the tone I was intending at all.
Gav, your post reminded me that there are more important things than being seen to win arguments mate. But I do think there is scope for discussing this as long as we are grown up about it.
looks like the game against Bremen was cancelled because of rain. Shame as there was a link to watch it online.
Hammerswest, I only just remembered that the game was on a live stream went to log on only to find out it was cancelled. Ah well at least the Ashes is still on. (& as I write this Prior goes for 60, never fear, Big Freddie Flintoft is in. Now 483 ahead)
Picking up from where I left this morning, The Tevez saga has been a dark stain on the football club for over 3 seasons, I for one am glad to finally see an end to it. Looking at what Munky has said, I agree we should all feel aggreived by what has happen and by no means do I feel that we were treated fairly by Griffiths tribunual. However we are still in the PL whilst the blunts remain where they should be. Lets take a look at McCabe et al for where has there £25 million claim got them, 3 seasons in the Fizzypop, sacking 2 managers, and a possible compensation claims from PNE for Paddy Kenny moment of insanity and Barnsley for the GBH by Morgan on Hume, using their own line of legal defence
By looking forward and not backwards the future is certainly more rosy in the east end than it is in South Yorks.
Keep the faith gents, COYI
Sorry if its been said before but didn’t McCabe say it was about justice not the money? Does this mean he’ll now be paying back the cash so justice can be seen to be done?
Lord Griffiths said he had no doubt that if the Premier League had been aware of West Ham’s discussions with Joorabchian’s lawyers following the disciplinary panel’s ruling,the league would not have allowed Tevez to play in the last three games of the season. He therefore based his assessment of Tevez’s “unlawful” contribution to the season’s points total on the whole season, including the last three games, in which Carlos scored the winner at Old Trafford.
Plainly, Griffiths was wrong in his view about what the Premier League would have done if they had been in possession of the same information as he had been. There is no reason to suupose they would have reached any decision other than the one recently announced, i.e. insufficient evidence to conclude there had been any breach of the rules.
It follows that he was therefore also wrong to take the last three games into account, so his notional three point deduction was also wrong. Hence his award of damages to Sheffield United was manifestly flawed and unjust.
His mistake, compounded by the FA’s rules prohibiting any appeal, has cost West Ham an awful lot of money in damages, legal costs, and also led to them being vilified by some sections of the media.
This injustice must be obvious to the FA, under who’s auspices the arbitration took place, and if they had any decency, they ought to act to remedy the matter, perhaps allowing the arbitration panel to reconsider its decision in the light of the new information.
Similarly, those newspaper columnists who jumped on the Griffiths bandwagon in unjustly condemning West Ham over Duxbury’s alleged “oral cuddles” ought to apologise.
I won’t hold my breath.
One more point before I leave you all in peace for a few days….something that to me proves how academic all of this has been and that it was always all about technicalities and nothing that could materially influence league positions.
The offending clause in Tevez’ contract was about 3rd party influence not ownership. ie: MSI could effectively decide whether or not Tevez played, not West Ham.
Regardless of any ‘oral cuddles’ (what is wrong with the word ‘assurances’ I will never know… jury prejudice anyone?), the catch 22 situation is that the only way that clause would have been implemented would have been if Tevez HADN’T played, on MSI instruction (for instance in case an injury prevented a big money move… say, to Man Utd). Surely the fact that he did play in those last few games, despite the fact that it was no surprise to anyone that they were to be his last, proves that the clause had been removed by West Ham as advised by the PL.
If, as is claimed, we assured MSI that the clause was still in place, knowing that we intended to play Tevez (how could we not) then there was no intention by MSI to use the clause. Either that or the ‘oral cuddles’ never happened.
I know rules are rules but that is a matter between West Ham and the PL. Taken in the context of whether any of this materially influenced Sheff Utd’s final league position, how could it?
BAC I think the main reason for the newspapers not offering any apollogies or printing retractions is they are concerned that doing so will be an admission of guilt on their part and open the door for a claim against them.
In fact given the at sometimes near hysteric reporting of our villiany and subsequent predicted finacial ruin it is amazing that the ruling which overturns all the previous stories has been reported with such a whimper. I have yet to read an account that doesnt merely report the bare facts of yesterdays ruling.
Where is all the editorialising that accompanied previous stories? Where have all the column inches gone? Why have we gone from front page to back page to being lost in inside page obsurity?
If an individual had been treated by the press in the manner in whice we were the public would be howling for retribution. Every single paper, tv and media outlet who partook in this which hunt should be severely sanctioned for their part.
The drove this club to the very abyss of extinction with nothing more than hear say, hysteria, hypocricy and a ruthless persuit of money. Jounalisim as a profession is dead, those who now pollute the industry are nothing but work shy hacks with all the integrity of a snake.
One more plus to be taken from this ruling is that we need never have to put up with seeing Kia Jorabchin smarmy face at Upton Park again.
Some good posts here re this appalling subject.
It was getting out of hand with players and managers alike jumping on the band wagon asking for some sort of compensation which quite honestly was laughable!
West Ham did do wrong in the first place and they have admitted to that and will learn a lot from the experience.They have paid the price for this mistake and will now show everyone that we do deserve to be in the Premier League with Zola and Clark proving they are top coaches.
Celtichammer, you’re probably right about the Press – admitting they got it wrong with their self righteous vilification of West Ham wouldn’t be to their advantage. The two faced so and so’s can change their minds, as most seemed to about Michael Jackson once he had died, but only if they think it might sell a few more papers.
But it isn’t only West Ham who have suffered an ‘injustice’ because of Griffiths’ ruling. What about all the clubs in the Championship which have been placed at an unfair financial disadvantage in comparison with Sheffield United, because the latter have been bolstered with West Ham’s money, courtesy of the FA’s arbitration panel and Griffiths?
Seeing how McCabe and the FA claimed to have been motivated by a desire for ‘justice’ in the Tevez affair, honour demands they should act to correct the current injustices now.
Like I said before, I won’t hold my breath.
Completely agree Munky – just don’t want it to drag on and on you understand.
Thanks for the informations they are too helpful for this subject…,Jul 20, 2010 1:59:59 PM