Sheffield Utd v The Football Association Premier League

Mr Justice Andrew Smith was faced with a sporting conundrum when he heard an application by Sheffield United for leave to appeal the decision of an Arbitration Panel of the Football Premier League – fuller details of which are set out below. His decision – that of Solomon – was that leave should not be given. At the High Court hearing, Ian Mill QC and Adam Lewis appeared for Sheffield United whilst Michael Beloff QC and Nick De Marco appeared for Fulham Football Club. The back ground to the application for leave came about as follows and involved a number of members of Blackstone Chambers being instructed to represent the interests of an almost equally large number of parties.

The Arbitration Panel had been asked to consider whether Sheffield United could appeal a decision by an independent committee set up by the Premier League, following which the League fined West Ham United but did not dock any points over its allegedly illegal signing of players Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. West Ham was fined £5.5m for signing Tevez and Mascherano because the players were part-owned by other parties. Tevez scored the winning goal for West Ham against Manchester United at the end of the season, contributing to Sheffield United's relegation and West Ham staying in the top flight. The Panel held that the Independent Commission’s original decision was neither irrational nor perverse and that the Premier League Board’s subsequent actions were reasonable. A copy of the decision can be found at : http://www.premierleague.com/public/downloads/publications/scan.pdf

Barristers from Blackstone Chambers: Paul Goulding QC, lead counsel for the Premier League, instructed by DLA Piper.

Ian Mill QC, Adam Lewis and Jane Mulcahy, counsel for Sheffield United, instructed by Denton Wilde Sapte.

Michael Beloff QC, instructed on behalf of Fulham Football Club.

The arbitration panel consisted of Sir Philip Otton, David Pannick QC of Blackstone Chambers, and Nicholas Randall.