Tevez court case goes on as Hammers lodge appeal

The legal argument surrounding Carlos Tevez's controversial role in keeping West Ham in the Premier League looks set to continue into the New Year.

West Ham appealed Wednesday against a High Court ruling in favour of Sheffield United.

This prevented the London club from appealing to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over a ruling that it had breached Premier League rules in playing the Argentina striker.

The matter is now set to return to the High Court next year.

In September, an independent arbitration panel ruled in favour of the Blades in their claim for compensation from West Ham over the Tevez affair.

The panel have yet to determine the size of the payout, but Sheffield United are claiming in excess of 30 million pounds from the Hammers for being relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the 2006-7 season, when a Tevez-inspired West Ham beat Manchester United to clinch top-flight safety.

The Premier League fined West Ham a record 5.5 million pounds for fielding Tevez, now at Manchester United and Javier Mascherano, who has since joined Liverpool, when they were ineligible to play under league rules regarding third-party ownership.

However, they did not dock West Ham points and the Blades remained relegated from the lucrative Premier League.