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When it rains...: Alan Curbishley has inherited a sorry mess at West Ham
1. Gerrard convinced Hammers blundered on Javier
2. FA call on Wenger to explain comments about 'lying linesman'
3. Wenger's persecution complex takes over if you upset Arsenal
4. Why don't the big teams bother to mine this gold?
West Ham could be thrown out of the Premiership after being charged with a blatant breach of transfer regulations and allegedly lying to senior Premier League officials.
As Sportsmail revealed on February 2, the struggling east London club have been facing a points deduction after fielding two ineligible players in Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez earlier this season.
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But the Premier League consider West Ham?s conduct so serious that they could be ejected from the top flight even if they secure enough points to avoid relegation.
According to one senior source last night, when West Ham executives were asked if there were any "third party deals" involved in the signing of the Argentina pair, Premier League officials were given a categoric "no".
The conduct of former chief executive Paul Aldridge and current deputy chief executive Scott Duxbury will come under the scrutiny of the independent commission appointed by the Premier League.
Another source last week dubbed as "outrageous" West Ham?s failure to produce documents that would have exposed a clear breach of rule U18, which is key to the case.
In a statement issued onb Friday, the Premier League said: "It is the Premier League board?s complaint that there were agreements in relation to both these transfers that enabled third parties to acquire the ability materially to influence the club?s policies and/or the performance of its teams in League matches and/or the competitions set out in Rule E10.
"The board?s view is this constitutes a breach of Rule U18. Furthermore, at the time of the transfer agreements for Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, and until January 24, 2007, West Ham failed to disclose the third-party agreements to the Premier League and/or deliberately withheld these agreements from the Premier League.
"The board?s view is this constitutes a breach of Rule B13, which states: 'In all matters and transactions relating to the league, each club shall behave towards each other club and the league with the utmost good faith'.
"West Ham United have 14 days within which to respond to these charges."
Premier League rules forbid the ownership of players by third parties who might be able to influence a club, and the South American pair were part-owned by Media Sports Investment, the firm run by Iranian-born businessman Kia Joorabchian, who became involved in a takeover attempt for the club.
West Ham have been advised they can demonstrate that MSI?s part-ownership of the players had no influence over the club because not only did then-manager Alan Pardew not pick the duo very often, but Joorabchian?s takeover attempt failed.
West Ham chairman Eggert Magnusson and his board intend to claim any offences were committed before their takeover.
Magnusson?s predecessor Terry Brown, who was in charge when it is alleged the rules were broken, resigned from the Upton Park board this week.
A West Ham statement said: "The club will vigorously defend itself against the charges and provide a detailed response as requested by the Premier League."
Mascherano has since been transferred to Liverpool, while Tevez will play for the Hammers against Tottenham on Sunday.
Manager Alan Curbishley said: "I?ve read there could be a points deduction, but my mind is only on the game with Tottenham. When you go into a club, you inherit things ? I?ve inherited this and so has the chairman." Aldridge and Duxbury were unavailable for comment on Friday night.
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