West Ham Holding Up Carlos Tevez Transfer To Manchester United

That is the official line being trotted out by Kia Joorabchian after Carlos Tevez's medical did not go ahead, even after Carlos Tevez turned up in Manchester. With the impasse between West Ham and Kia Joorabchian showing no sign of letting up for the next couple of weeks, Carlos Tevez has decided to take a short holiday, with a possible extension if he misses the August 31 deadline for all transferees to have signed on the dotted line with their new clubs.

It seems baffling that in a world where lawyers pore over every ink-laden pixel in a player's contract, we have a situation where a businessman and a Premier League club are arguing over who owns a player's economic rights. It is equally lamentable that it has taken the parties concerned this long to deduce that they should request FIFA's help to sort out their problems.

Joorabchian quite obviously has absolutely nothing to lose in this matter. He could potentially be sitting on (or the majority of) a 30+ million pound pay day. The men from FIFA will tell us whether this goldmine is his or not.

In the meanwhile, however, the mind boggles at why West Ham has been so publicly reticent about letting Carlos Tevez make the move to Manchester United. Once a player has decided that he is on the move, it is in his current club's best interests to do everything possible to make the transfer a seamless process and earn their fee in return.

Football administrators (like their cricketing counterparts) have not always proven to be the sharpest tools in the shed. This situation is purporting to be another case where money has made many minds boggle.

For Carlos Tevez's sake, and the hopes of all Manchester United fans, one can only hope that FIFA resolves this issue sooner rather than later. For, Carlos Tevez with Wayne Rooney, in front of a combination of Christiano Ronaldo, Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves will be a sight to behold.