As Javier Mascherano renews acquaintances with Lionel Messi following his appointment as Inter Miami’s new head coach, much will no doubt be made of the pair’s winning touch.
Not only did they both grasp Olympic gold with Argentina at the 2008 Beijing Games, but the pair also spent almost a decade together at Barcelona, where one of the game’s all-time great club sides won trophy after trophy with a scintillating brand of attacking football.
Mascherano may be embarking on his first professional managerial position in Florida but more of the same will be expected, such is the 40-year-old’s pedigree on the back of a successful playing career that also included stints in the Premier League with West Ham United and Liverpool.
The first of those amounted to just a few months in London. But the midfielder’s brief stay in the capital remains one of the most controversial episodes in the history of English soccer. Mascherano and fellow Argentine Carlos Tevez became unwittingly embroiled in a saga that eventually took two years of legal wrangling to settle, and even saw a Hollywood A-list actor dragged into the fray.
The Athletic explains just what happened…
August 31, 2006. Tevez and Mascherano, both 22, were fresh from reaching the World Cup quarter-finals with Argentina. After a summer that had seen the pair courted by a host of Europe’s elite clubs, West Ham — who had finished the previous season ninth in the Premier League, and the two seasons before that not even playing in the top division — stunned football by signing the star duo.
Such a bold move was both audacious and ambitious. It was also illegal.
In signing Tevez and Mascherano from Brazilian champions Corinthians, West Ham had breached Premier League rules governing third-party ownership due to the players both being owned by a combination of investors and off-shore companies. This meant it was they who ultimately called the shots on the futures of Tevez and Mascherano, and not the club.
Mascherano (seated, right) at his unveiling alongside Alan Pardew and Carlos Tevez (Adam Davy/Getty Images)
Presumably this meant the transfers were cancelled pretty quickly?
Afraid not. The breach only came to light the following January, when Mascherano moved to Liverpool. Until then, no-one was any the wiser as to the finer details of the double transfer, even though there had been murmurings among West Ham’s rival clubs almost from the moment manager Alan Pardew unveiled his two new signings on transfer deadline day.
Kevin McCabe, then Sheffield United chairman, told The Athletic in 2019: “It was probably known in the autumn that West Ham had signed these two world-class players in Mascherano and Tevez for nothing. There was a smell. How could West Ham, a struggling team, buy two world-class players and not pay anything for them?”
An investigation was immediately launched. In the meantime, Tevez was free to continue playing for West Ham, while Mascherano did the same for new club Liverpool, albeit only after a complicated web of third party ownership had taken three weeks to untangle.
And West Ham badly needed Tevez, having become embroiled in a battle against relegation.
This seems a tad unfair, especially to West Ham’s relegation rivals…
You’d think so, but at the time neither player had done much to further West Ham’s cause.
Mascherano made just three league starts before leaving for Anfield in midseason, and West Ham lost all three. Tevez’s first goal in any competition, meanwhile, didn’t arrive until his 20th appearance on March 4. Even that came in a 4-3 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, a result that left the club rock bottom of the Premier League with just five wins and 20 points from 29 games.
With just nine games of the season remaining, ten points separated West Ham, by now under new ownership following a takeover led by Icelandic businessman Eggert Magnusson the previous December, from fourth bottom Manchester City.
At this stage it felt like the deal hadn’t massively benefitted the London club.
Mascherano in UEFA Cup action for West Ham against Palermo (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
So, when did the Premier League get round to doing something about it?
Two days before the home loss to Spurs that had seen Tevez break his goalscoring drought, ironically enough. That was when West Ham were charged with breaching Rule B13 and Rule U18 in relation to the signings of Tevez and Mascherano.
A three-man panel was then appointed a little over a month later to investigate. For the record, Rule B13 stated: “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.”
Rule U18, meanwhile, read: “No club shall enter into a contract which enables any other party to that contract to acquire the ability materially to influence its policies or the performance of its teams in league matches or in any (other) competitions.”
A hearing date was set for April 26, less than three weeks before the scheduled end of the season. West Ham pleaded guilty and the panel’s 26-page report made for damning reading, as it is revealed Mascherano and Tevez were owned by offshore companies who could influence when either was sold, to whom and at what price.
West Ham were fined £5.5million — £3 million for acting in bad faith, the remainder for entering into the third-party agreements. Crucially, though, considering what happened next on the pitch, West Ham were spared the points deduction that many of their rivals had been calling for. Tevez was also cleared to play in the remaining three fixtures.
And How did West Ham’s rivals take that news…?
There was a sense that maybe the Premier League had taken the easy option. West Ham were still odds-on to be relegated due to being three points adrift of fourth bottom Sheffield United, whose goal difference was vastly superior.
Sheffield United duly won 24 hours later but so did West Ham, 3-0 at fellow relegation battlers Wigan Athletic. Tevez then netted twice the following weekend as a 3-1 win over Bolton Wanderers to set up a dramatic final day that left three clubs in danger of joining already relegated Charlton Athletic and Watford in next season’s Championship.
Wigan started the afternoon in the relegation zone but victory over Sheffield United at Bramall Lane was enough to save them, and meant all eyes switched to Old Trafford, where West Ham, now managed by Alan Curbishley, were taking on recently-crowned champions Manchester United.
Only a win for the Londoners would do, and Tevez duly delivered the only goal. Sheffield United were down and destined not to return to the Premier League for another 12 years.
Sheffield United fans were left heartbroken by their relegation (Rui Vieira/Getty Images)
Was that the end of the matter?
No, far from it. FIFA announced an investigation just 48 hours after the season had ended, while Sheffield United filed arbitration proceedings against the Premier League in an attempt to overturn the decision to only impose a fine on West Ham.
Lord of the Rings, GoldenEye and Game of Thrones star Sean Bean, a lifelong fan of the Yorkshire club, joined a rally outside the Houses of Parliament, but it did little good, as their club were again left frustrated.
McCabe, however, refused to give up and eventually sought recompense via the courts, this time winning a £23 million settlement from West Ham.
Even that, though, was considered small beer compared to the potential benefits that could have accompanied staying up in 2007, as McCabe made clear when speaking to The Athletic about the ‘Tevez saga’ earlier this year: “We got a sum of money that sounds a lot but, the way football went, it proved to be peanuts. That does frustrate me.”
Why the ‘Tevez saga’? Why no mention of Inter Miami’s new head coach?
Simply because Tevez’s late-season goals kept West Ham up against all odds. He scored seven times in the final ten games. This included victories over Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough and Bolton, plus, of course, that decisive final day win at Old Trafford.
Mascherano may have been part of the same double transfer deal but his impact on the field was minimal, with West Ham losing all seven games he appeared in before moving to Liverpool. Hence, it’s Tevez whose name remains most synonymous with one of the most infamous episodes in Premier League history.
(Top photo: Shaun Cutty/Getty Images)
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