West Ham settle for quick sign-off on Tevez
Matt Scott
Deloitte auditors told West Ham United that they would not sign off the club’s accounts unless a settlement was reached with Sheffield United over the Carlos Tevez affair.
Until a fortnight ago the Hammers were operating under threat of a £45m legal action from Sheffield United. That followed a tribunal verdict that West Ham’s illegal use of Tevez had led to the Blades’ relegation from the Premier League in 2007.
The magnitude of the potential liability spooked the auditors who told West Ham’s directors that greater financial certainty would be required before they could confirm the business as a going concern.
Failure to sign off the accounts would have presented enormous problems for the Hammers, who kept their lenders at bay only with the January sales of Craig Bellamy, Matthew Etherington and Hayden Mullins, raising nearly £20m.
It was a close thing. The registration deadline for their accounts was to be today but the club were able to shorten their accounting period by 48 hours, a change that paradoxically defers the filing deadline by three months.
In the meantime the Hammers agreed to a £26.5m settlement with Sheffield United, the payment schedule of which is comfortably affordable for West Ham and thus provides the accountants with the certainty they demanded.
This pretty much sums up what we all thought ourselves; though accepting guilt in the Tevez saga was wrong in my eyes, it was done to enhance the chances of selling the club.
