Premier league defiant despite battling Blades

The Premier League have vowed to push ahead with plans for next season despite Sheffield United launching a High Court appeal over the Carlos Tevez affair.

The Yorkshire club are claiming an arbitration panel made an “error in law” by not ordering that a new disciplinary commission deal with West Ham for breaching league rules when they signed Tevez.

The Premier League, who are confident any further legal action against them will also fail, said in a statement: “Our legal team inform us that this is a very narrow window of appeal where Sheffield United are claiming that the arbitration panel under Sir Philip Otton made an error in law by failing to send back the original decision to the independent disciplinary commission for reconsideration.

“It is a matter of record that the Premier League has acted at all times in accordance with our rule book and procedures, as such we expect this matter to be expedited as quickly as possible and, again, we will not be altering any plans for next season.”

A source close to Sheffield United insisted that they had not yet lodged a formal appeal but were speaking to a High Court judge to see if such a move was permissible.

The source told PA Sport: “We have applied to find out if we can lodge an appeal through the civil courts. This involves speaking to a judge and is a technical process.

“We may lodge an appeal as a result but we may not. We are still going through the process.”

Sheffield United, who were relegated from the top flight on the last day of last season, believe the Hammers should have been docked points for breaching league rules on third-party agreements.

Their latest move comes after the arbitration panel dismissed the Blades’ claim - but at the same time said West Ham should have been docked points.

The three-man tribunal refused to order a new disciplinary hearing however because they said the original decision to fine the Hammers £5.5million could not be judged “perverse or irrational”.

Sheffield United, for whom relegation will cost £50million, also lost another claim – made jointly with Fulham – that the Premier League should have forced West Ham to de-register Tevez before the crucial last three matches of the season.