Portsmouth and West Ham are facing a possible points deduction after breaching Premiership rules by fielding ineligible players, according to reports.
The Daily Mail claims that a number of top-flight clubs are questioning whether the appearances of Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez for West Ham and Manuel Fernandes for Portsmouth were in violation of Premiership Rule U18.
Rule U18 states that: "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."
This covers players owned by a third party, like Mascherano and Tevez, who are part owned by Kia Joorabchian, and Fernandes, who is partially owned by a private company called Global Sports Agency.
One possible breach of the rule is the widely-reported claim that if, Fernandes played three consecutive games for Portsmouth, 'there was a clause in the contract that stated that Portsmouth would have to sign Fernandes on a permanent deal.'
Everton, who have taken Fernandes on loan for the remainder of the season, are one club reported to be demanding the points from their clash with Pompey earlier in the season, in which the Portuguese featured.
Meanwhile, the newspaper maintains that 'A Premier League meeting last night failed to reach a conclusion in relation to Mascherano. Another meeting will take place today, but even then Liverpool could be left sweating on whether he will be able to move.'
The Premier League has publicly insisted that they are unaware of any breach of the rules in the Mascherano case.
"With what has been presented to us we haven't allowed anything that would transgress our rules," said a league spokesman.
But the Daily Mail claim they have come into a possession of a letter from Premier League general secretary Mike Foster warning West Ham they risked a points deduction if they failed to produce the necessary documents for the transfers of Tevez and Mascherano in the summer.
The letter, obtained by the Mail from the Premier League, says they have contacted the 20 top-flight chairmen this week and offered them a 14 day amnesty to produce any contracts which breach rule U18 and were not disclosed when the player was registered.
'Foster's letter ends: "Once we have your responses, the board will consider relevant disclosures and then decide on appropriate action, if any,"' reports the Mail.
'The letter, however, has succeeded only in fuelling the suspicion among clubs fighting alongside West Ham to avoid relegation that a breach has already occurred.'
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seems that mascherino deal may fall through
everton trying to claim the points as well
