LONDON (AP):

West Ham face possible further sanctions in the Carlos Tevez case after a new inquiry was launched yesterday by the Premier League and Football Association.

The announcement comes as the Hammers face a huge compensation claim by Sheffield United and owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson tries to sell the club amid possible bankruptcy for its Icelandic holding company.

West Ham had already been fined £5.5 million in April 2007 for breaking rules on third-party ownership in the transfers of Tevez, who is now at Manchester United, and Argentina midfielder, Javier Mascherano.

Hasty changes

The latest investigation centres on the hasty changes made to Tevez's contentious contract that enabled him to play in the last three matches of the 2006-7 season. His goals kept the London side in the topflight at the expense of Sheffield United.

An independent FA-appointed panel found, in September, that Tevez was not eligible to play in the matches, ruling that the Blades were entitled to compensation from West Ham because Tevez's goals condemned them to relegation.

The attorney for Tevez's agent, Kia Joorabchian, told the tribunal that West Ham chief executive Scott Duxbury, having told the Premier League that the third-party agreement had been terminated, provided assurances that it still existed.

"If the Premier League had known what Mr. Duxbury for West Ham was saying to Mr. Joorabchian's solicitor following the commission decision, we are confident that the Premier League would have suspended Mr. Tevez's registration as a West Ham player," Hugh Griffiths, who chaired the arbitration tribunal, said in his findings. "We have no doubt that those (Tevez's) services were worth at least three points to West Ham over the season and were what made the difference between West Ham remaining in the Premiership and being relegated."

Tevez and Mascherano, now with Liverpool, moved to Upton Park in August 2006 from Brazilian side Corinthians on free transfers. When they joined, their contracts were owned by British-based company Media Sports Investment and another third party, a fact hidden by West Ham from the Premier League.